Undercutting the Undercutter

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A leading ERP & e-business vendor in China has recently been quoted saying that it can get things done for less money than its Indian counterparts. This follows closely on the heels of its starting a new outsourcing branch targeting the US market.

Not surprisinly enough, the average annual salaries of an average Chinese programmer is anywhere between $5248 to $9000, way below what an average Indian programmer earns in an year (average $10000), the report says.

Although China has come up into global market as a force to reckon with, its main business area still remains manufacturing, where there is minimum interaction with the West & the language is not a problem. But for a white collared job where frequent interactions are required with the client, I think China will have serious problems. After all, no one would want their software & the supporting documentation to be developed in Chinese.

Secondly, a single company cannot be called as an industry & a threat to the established Indian Software industry. It will take a long time for China to catch up with India in the Software export race.