Aussie state may tie up with SMEs

The south Australian state of Victoria hopes to forge deals with Indian SMEs in Bangalore for co-development of high-end products and solutions which can be marketed globally.

This can reduce the time to market, according to Marsha Thomson, Victoria's minister for information and communication technology, in Bangalore to participate in IT.Com 2004.

The state of Victoria has come with the biggest foreign delegation for this year's event. It comprises 54 people representing about 25 companies. It also includes representatives of university, SMEs and regional councils.

"We are encouraged by the fact that some of the most well-known Indian companies have already set up shop in Victoria. These include Wipro, Infosys and Satyam who have set up global delivery centres. The Victorian economy has been growing around 4.8 per cent in the last five years, while our inflation rate was 2.2 per cent last year. We feel that the environment is conducive for tie-ups that result in co-development of products and solutions," Ms Thomson explained.

Victoria's ICT industry consists of 1,500 firms that clock a turnover of $14.1 billion and employs 60,200 people, 30 per cent of the total workforce of the Australian ICT industry.

As part of the Trade Mission of Victorian ICT companies to Bangalore, Ms Thomson has already met Logica and is scheduled to meet Infosys and Wipro on Tuesday.

Highlighting the education and tourism ties with India, Ms Thomson said, "A record 7,000 Indian students enrolled in Victorian universities in 2003 "� an increase of 2,000 students over the previous year "� and 42 per cent of all Indians who visited Australia during 2003 came to Victoria."