Hitachi Systems & Services (HSS) signed an agreement with Shenzhen Software Park yesterday to train outsourcing managers targeting the booming Japanese market.

The move will allow the IT-driven southern city to take a slice of the growing software outsourcing business from Japan, the world's second-largest technology market, said Zeng Guozhong, director of Shenzhen Software Park's management office. The park is a Shenzhen government-backed body for the development of the software industry.

The city used to concentrate its efforts on attracting outsourcing business from American and European clients.

The new program with HSS, an arm of Hitachi Group that focuses on providing system integration services, will train 300 professionals by the end of this year, Zeng said.

"HSS has developed a comprehensive and practical training program for software outsourcing, which is not only suitable for the company itself but for other Japanese companies," he noted.

Besides professional and project management courses and case studies, the five-month training program will include the study of the Japanese language, commercial cooperation and negotiation skills in Japanese community.

"These arrangement will help project managers better understand the requirements of the Japanese buyers and facilitate a more efficient cooperation and communication with Japanese technicians," said Cho Jakuko, IT talented person service center manager of HSS's investment in China.

Shinji Muramoto, executive officer of HSS, said the software development business is growing in Japan but the number of professionals is decreasing.

"It's estimated that the number of IT professionals totaled 600,000 seven years ago but has shrunk to about 550,000. Increased business has been outsourced to China, India, South Korea and Vietnam," Muramoto said.

His company has already cooperated with three other Chinese cities - Dalian and Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province and Jinan in east China's Shandong Province - in training outsourcing professionals.

China is already Japan's biggest software outsourcing base, taking in more than 60 percent of Japan's outsourced software trade in 2006, Mine Shentaro, of the Japan External Trade Organization based in Dalian, was quoted as saying.

(China Daily May 31, 2007)