China and India jointly set up a company Monday to engage in computer software development and related professional training.

The National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), the biggest IT professional training body in India, and Tianda Tiancai Co., Ltd. agreed to invest US$50,000 and US$150,000, respectively, in the NIIT-Tianda Tiancai IT Co., Ltd. in Tianjin.

The new company will train 3,000 professionals for China and foreign IT companies each year.

B. G. Purushotham, vice-president of the Indian company, said that the prospects for China's IT industry are very promising.

Purushotham said that he hoped the new company would train more software engineers. He said that the number of computer software engineers is increasing by 40,000 each year in China, while the figure is 250,000 in India.

Kou Jisong, chairman of the board of Tianda Tiancai Co., Ltd, has studied the software industry in India. He said that he hoped that China could learn professional training methods from India.

"We hope to explore a new way for IT professional training in China, so that we can train more quality IT professionals and have a share of this potential educational trade," Kou said.

It is learned that NIIT has established over 2,000 institutes in nearly 20 countries, which train 500,000 students each year.

(People's Daily 04/24/2001)