Bangalore, April 14: Infosys Technologies will scale up its Chinese operations and take in 1000 software engineers in Shanghai by March 2006.

Around 850 technical professionals will be hired to work along with the 150 existing software experts in Shanghai. ?We have a modest presence in China now with about 150 employees. Though the subsidiary generated revenues of Rs 8 crore last year, it suffered a net loss of Rs 8 crore. We will invest in technology as well as people to expand our operations in China. About 100 Chinese students will be trained at our facilities in Bangalore and Mysore this year,? CEO and managing director Nandan Nilekani said.

On Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao?s suggestion that India?s expertise in software and China?s knowhow in hardware should be pooled to dominate the infotech market, Nilekani said: ?We think there is a lot of merit in coming together of both the countries. His predecessor Zhu Rongji also spoke on similar lines during his visit to Infosys in 2002.?

Infosys Technologies (Shanghai) CEO James Lin said the subsidiary would target global firms in China for selling software solutions in banking and financial services, automobile and communications.

?China is a big opportunity for Indian IT firms like Infosys with the market size projected at $100 billion. Though engineering skills are as good as in India, we need to move up the value-chain in terms of management, processes and delivery mechanism. We will eventually look at opportunities in Japan and the far east,? he said.

Lin said Infosys would have to compete with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), IBM and Peyond Soft, a Chinese software company. ?The compensation levels are similar to that in India. The attrition rate too is about 10 to 12 per cent, just as in the Indian software companies,? he said.