Indian IT firms have not done well in China so far, as they have

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not been prepared to appoint more local IT professionals, a visiting Chinese delegation has said. The Chengdu Tianfu Software Park delegation, which is in Bangalore for a six-day visit, said the only way to achieve success in China was to embrace the country’s culture and get to know the business elements better by appointing more Chinese employees.

The time has come for a change in mindset, said Victor Jansson, vice-president of the software park, while replying to a query by Financial Chronicle in a media conference on Monday. At present, Indian IT firms employ only 10-20 per cent Chinese nationals in their operations, according to the delegation.

“This has to move up. Ideally, around 70 per cent of the workforce should be Chinese,” said Jansson. “I can see some changes of late and many Chinese IT professionals are being interviewed for jobs in Indian IT firms,” Jansson added.

According to Christine Du, deputy director of Chengdu Hi-Tech Development Zone, companies such as IBM and Accenture realised this long ago. “These companies have been hiring top Chinese professionals at senior levels for sometime, and have gained,” she said.

SD Shibulal, COO of Infosys Technologies, in a recent conversation with Financial Chronicle had said that the company’s Chinese development centre had grown in the last one year to develop IT and BPO services to clients across the world. “China is a long-term player. It takes time to succeed in China, and we have started to hire locally,” he said. Infosys has hired 1,000 people in China and is looking to hire 250 more.

After six years, Infosys achieved break-even in China on a quarterly basis during the fourth quarter of the previous financial year. Infosys China posted a profit of $1.59 million on revenues of $ 9.14 million. TCS told FC that it does not break out any subsidiary’s revenue and profit numbers. Wipro officials did not respond, as they are about to announce quarterly results on Tuesday.

TCS plans to take its employee base in China to 5,000 from 1,000 employees at present. It holds 66 per cent stake in a joint venture company called TCS China, which it formed with three Chinese companies in 2006.

Wipro, which set up its Chinese operations in 2004, is also looking to ramp up its employee base.

Meanwhile, a new visa regime that will take into account the specific problem of Chinese workers coming to India for unskilled jobs on business visas is on the cards, according to reports. The Chengdu delegation, however, did not want to be drawn into that. “We are not aware of this issue. We have never faced issues on Indian visas,” said Christine Du.