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For Infosys, its CEO Vishal Sikka's joining the delegation of business leaders who accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his trip to China, assumes significance as the Bengaluru-based IT services company is looking at expanding in the country, both as a delivery location as well as a market. While at present, the company is predominantly servicing global clients out of China, it has a strong employee base of over 3,000 people in the country, almost of 90 per cent of which are local Chinese employees, a senior company official said.
"We believe that China offers huge opportunities as a market which we have not been able to tap to the extent we could have done.
His (Sikka's) visit to China assumes a lot more significance in that context," the official added.
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According the sources in the company, during his visit to China, Prime Minister Modi was presented with a layout plan of a large campus that Infosys is setting up in Shanghai, to showcase how Indian companies are investing heavily in the country. The Shanghai campus, the foundation stone of which was laid in 2011 by the then chairman and chief mentor, NR Narayana Murthy is spread across 15 acres in Zizhu Science and Technology Park with a sitting capacity of 8,000 people. While announcing this, the company had then said that it was planning to invest between $125 million and $150 million. It was also said to be the largest investment in China by a software company. Apart from Shanghai, Infosys is also present in Hangzhou, Dalian as well as Beijing.
Meanwhile, news agency ANI quoted Sikka as saying that India and China working together could create a poll of opportunities. "I think what (Prime Minister) Modi said is very appropriate: the history is deep and the future is even brighter. So the two countries working together will actually create a huge set of opportunities," he said.
