The city of Dalian aims to become a world-class software city, said senior government officials at the 8th China International Software & Information Service Fair (CISIS), which opened Tuesday in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning province.

"Dalian is currently among the best software cities in China, especially in terms of software export and outsourcing," said Xia Deren, secretary of CPC Dalian municipal committee.

According to a report issued by the International Data Corporation on global delivery index in 2008, Dalian ranks No.1 in China and No.5 in the world.

"We plan to build a world-class industrial zone on the Lushun South Road by 2020, with world-class output value and export volume," he said.

Xia pointed out that more and more multinationals are moving their outsourcing business to China to reduce costs after the global financial crisis.

At the same time, the domestic software market has also expanded quickly.

Xia said Dalian is to adopt new policies to encourage the development of the software sector, such as encouraging domestic companies to go abroad to annex foreign software businesses and opening up new markets at home.

"We have seized the opportunities brought by economic globalization in the past 10 years and we will face new challenges and opportunities in the coming 10 years," he said.

Increasing influence

As the only national-level software fair approved by the State Council and a major global software event, the annual CISIS has gained solid recognition from home and abroad since it was first held in 2003.

This year's fair, to be held from June 22 to 25, consists of over 80 conferences, forums and exhibitions. The activities will cover the fields of software innovation, service outsourcing, industrial trends, copyright protection, project management and engineering innovation.

An IT project management forum and engineering innovation forum are to be held for the first time.

"The software and information service industry, which has acquired a strategic position in China, is playing a significant role in promoting the nation's economic growth," said Dai Yulin, vice mayor of Dalian and secretary general of CISIS.

Dai said CISIS has become the most influential software event in China and an important platform of international cooperation and trade in the IT industry.

More than 50 major multinationals, such as Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP and HP, set up pavilions at the fair. Major domestic IT companies, including Lenovo, Neusoft, UFIDA, Hualu, hiSoft,and DHC are also taking an active part in the fair.

They will fully display the latest developing trends in the world software industry as well as the robust development of China's software industry.

"The number of enterprises and business people attending this year's fair has reached a record high," Dai said.

"Energy-efficient, low-carbon and environmentally friendly products and services will play a major role."

He said this year's exhibition area reaches 35,000 sq m, covering almost all fields of IT industry, including system software, supporting software, application software, embedded software, system integration solutions, software information services, telecommunication equipment, computer production and new media.

Visitors will see clearly the developing trend of the software industry and experience the tremendous changes the software industry has brought to society.

The main forum, the International Software and Information Services Forum and Entrepreneurs Summit, is the highest-level forum for China's software sector.

Senior government officials, leaders of major multinationals and IT professionals will gather in the forum to discuss how to build a green IT sector.

The other forums are held to examine the current situation of the IT sector from various perspectives so that companies and business leaders can get a full understanding of the whole sector and its developing trends.

Room for development

"The change and upgrade of China's industrial structure has created a big market demand, which provides tremendous room for software technological innovation and application," said Liu Dechun, director of Dalian Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau.

He said that a lot of foreign multinationals, financial institutions, outsourcing companies, software providers, software integrators, telecommunication operators, management consulting companies and professional training institutions have poured into China in recent years.

They have stimulated China's domestic software sector to establish the systems of R&D, management, market expansion, outsourcing and personnel training.

The customer resources at CISIS are shared by the software industry nationwide. Delegations and enterprises from China's provinces and municipalities have signed numerous cooperation or investment projects with customers at each year's fair.

Liu said the past seven fairs have not only contributed to the nation's software sector development, but also have boosted the economic growth of Dalian.

Since 2003, over 50 major multinationals have established their software or information service agencies here.

As an old industrial city in Northeast China, Dalian used to rely on the heavy chemical industry, which brought serious pollution.

Today, the modern service industry, represented by the software and information sector, has taken a dominant role in the city.

In 2009, the city's software sales income reached 40 billion yuan and its software export volume hit $1.4 billion, an increase of more than 30 percent over 2008.

(China Daily 06/23/2010 page15)