Moves afoot for India, EU IT Ties
Bangalore, 26 March, 2004
Deccan Herald

Unlike the US, the Europe nations are not against outsourcing and are in fact welcoming the Indian IT companies with open arms.

The European Commission in association with Interactive Technology Software and Media Association (ITSMA) on Thursday launched two initiatives. Accelerator and PATENT, facilitating collaboration between SME companies in India and European Union.

The PATENT initiatives seeks to stimulate R & D in Indian IT SMEs by opening new partnerships and avenues to their cutting edge work while the Accelerator aims to obtain funding certain for certain R & D programmes from various existing organizations. Participating at the Indo European IT SME Forum here, Mr. Philippe Wacker, Secretary General, European Multimedia Forum, said, "As Europe today actively begins to look at partnerships and outsourcing opportunities, there is a need for environment which would enable companies in Europe and outside to develop win - win alliances."

He said the Accelerator initiative would help Indian companies to tap 6 billion euro market opportunity of deploying broadband applications across Europe.

In his keynote address, Dr. Bob Hoekstra, CEO, Philips Software Centre, said Indian IT firms should address specific needs of European SMEs, which was not focus of the big companies. This untapped space, he added, was significant in market. He said Indian companies should offer a compelling reason to outsource or partner with European firms. Three Indian firms - blue Star Infotech, Sunlet Systems and Magnasoft Consulting India were honored with the European Seal of Excellence 2004 awards.