State Councilor Chen Zhili signed a landmark agreement in New Delhi last Thursday for collaboration in information technology. 

Ms Chen, the most senior Chinese science official to visit India, and Kapil Sibal, India's minister for science and technology, also pledged to cooperate in space and pharmaceutical research, disaster management, renewable energy and biotechnology.

The two countries have also set up the first joint steering committee for scientific cooperation, chaired by Ms Chen and Mr Sibal. Its first meeting is scheduled to take place in Beijing next year.

Ms Chen praised India's advanced computer industry during a visit to Bangalore -- India's Silicon Valley -- and called on China and India to work closely together.

She met executives of Bangalore-based Infosys, India's best-known software firm, which is setting up a software development facility in Shanghai.

Mr Sibal said that as "India is No.1 in terms of software and China is No.1 in hardware, we can together become No.1 in IT".

Ms Chen is due to call on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi on her three-day visit.

She is the second state councilor to visit India in quick succession. Last month, Tang Jiaxuan paid a highly publicized visit which boosted bilateral ties and apparently cleared the path for a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao to India early next year.

A Chinese official told the Indian Express that Beijing wanted to increase scientific cooperation with India and South Korea.

Welcoming the technology deal, Indian Chamber of Commerce secretary-general Nazeeb Arif said: "China is strong in hardware, their facilities and their abilities and their costs are such that they are already dominant in a large part of the manufacturing arena.

"India is a major leader in software, we have a lot of things going for us -- quality, productivity and, of course, cost effectiveness."

Analysts said trade and economic cooperation between the two nuclear neighbors had suffered immensely because of a festering border dispute and China's military links with India's regional rival, Pakistan.

Significantly, Taiwan's National Science Council has just announced plans to open a science and technology division in New Delhi, according to the Taipei Times. The newspaper reported that staff from the council would collaborate with Indian researchers in fields including energy, aerospace, information technology and communications.

(CRI November 22, 2004)