|
China
Economy will continue to have fast, yet steady, economic growth this
year
In its second
and final round of data releases covering 2005, National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), left unrevised the China's gross domestic product
(GDP) growth at 9.9 pct for 2005. For the yr2004 NBS had reported GDP
growth of 9.5 percent. China's gross domestic product
(GDP) totalled 18,232.1 billion Yuan, or about 2,279 billion U.S. dollars.
Agriculture accounted for 12.4 percent of the GDP, compared to 47.3
percent from industry and 40.3 percent from services sector. Though the
country's arable land decreased by another 362,000 hectares, its grain
production increased by 3.1 percent to 484.01 million tons. Cotton output
declined by 9.8 percent to 5.7 million tons.
In the
industrial sector, state-owned companies saw their profit go up by 17.4
percent, compared to 47.3 percent for private enterprises.
Overseas-invested companies recorded the lowest growth rate in profits,
which stood at 6.9 percent.
China, already the
world's biggest producer of many industrial products, saw another
double-digital growth in many such products. In 2005, it generated 2,474.7
billion kilowatt/hours of electricity, produced 2.19 billion tons of coal,
Raw steel output amounted to 352.39 mln tons, up 24.6 pct with steel
products output up 24.1 pct at 396.92 mln tons, Aluminium output 7.79 mln
tons, 1.06 billion tons of cement and 5.7 million vehicles. Computer
production surged 35.3 pct to 80.84 mln
units.
China's foreign
trade continued its dynamic growth. Its trade volume soared by 23.2
percent to 1,422.1 billion dollars, with a trade surplus of 101.9 billion
dollars. Foreign-owned firms accounted for 831.7 billion dollars of the
Chinese trade volume, about 58.3 pct of China's exports last year and
58.7 pct of imports. No comparative figures were
provided.
China approved
44,001 Foreign-owned company-invested projects in 2005, slightly up by 0.8
percent. But actual investment slid by 0.5 percent to 60.3 billion
dollars. China's overseas foreign
investment rocketed by 25.8 percent in 2005, reaching a new high of 6.9
billion dollars.
China had a 1.30756
billion population by the end of 2005, 7.68 million more than that in the
previous year. The birth-rate dropped from 21.06 per thousand in 1990 to
12.40 in 2005, while the growth rate went down from 14.39 per thousand to
5.89.The living standards of the Chinese people continued to improve in
2005, as indicated by the two-digit growth in the sales of cars,
electrical appliances, furniture, jewellery and other consumer products.
By the end of 2005, China's private-owned vehicles
amounted to 23.65 million, up 22 percent over a year
ago.
New figures
also reflected challenges facing the country, such as the increasing
wealth gap and environmental pollution. The average net income for
China's rural residents
amounted to 3,255 Yuan (407 dollars) in 2005, less than one third of the
10,493 Yuan (1,312 dollars) for their urban counterparts.
China's urban population
totalled 562.12 million by the end of 2005, accounting for 43 percent of
the total, and rural population reached 745.44 million, accounting for 57
percent.
China's environment
improved slightly in some aspects, but the general situation remains
gloomy. By the end of 2005, about 48.4 percent of the waste water in
Chinese cities was treated before being discharged, slightly up over the
previous year. At the same time, over one third of the 523 monitored
cities were shrouded in pollution air, while 41 percent of the water in
China's largest seven rivers is
also polluted. |
|
Outsourcing
equity research
The Mckinsey Global
Institute estimates that the volume of offshore outsourcing will increase
by 30 to 40 % for the next 5 years. 3.3 million Jobs will be
generated overall by the year 2015. Deloitte research predicts the
outsourcing of 2 million financial sector jobs by 2009. Equity
research is one of the key areas in which KPO will
flourish.
Outsourcing
is next big thing for game development
According to a recent
report by Screen Digest, outsourcing has become a key instrument for
developers in the gaming industry for maintaining profitability in the
wake of the rising costs of games development. The size of the games
outsourcing market is expected to reach USD 1.1 billion by the end of 2006
and further increase to USD 2.5 billion levels by 2010. As a result,
outsourcing will command 40 percent of the total games development spend.
The projected growth will be realized due to the arrival of new
games consoles, which demand higher resolution and better art, produced by
major players, such as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Consequently,
the productions costs rise. The rise in production costs can be
checked by adopting the outsourcing to as low as 20 percent from a
projected figure of 50 percent. Already, it is estimated that 60
percent of the major games studios make use of it in their development
strategies.
Drug Discovery Outsourcing Market
Set to Exceed $7 Billion by 2009
Kalorama
Information, a New York-headquartered market research firm, estimates the
drug discovery outsourcing market to increase from the current USD 4.1
billion to USD 7.2 billion by 2009. The market is projected to follow a
growth rate of 15 percent. Most of the growth is expected to come
through gaining momentum in acceptance of outsourcing as a means to
realize cost-savings.
Offshoring: ‘no
threat to jobs’
Another recent study by
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an
association of 30 countries, claims that there is no definite link between
the decline of employment in the services sector and offshoring. The
study is investigating the effects of offshoring on employment and is
founded on occupational data from the OECD countries. The study
found that the availability of offshore outsourcing services has
stimulated development of new business
segments.
United Nations should think
about Offshore Outsourcing, moving ...
United Nations should
think about Offshore Outsourcing, moving jobs to other destinations,
stated UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan. The estimation suggests that
taking the help of Offshore Outsourcing, United Nation would be able to
save somewhere around $US35 million annually and discharge three floors of
work space. |
|
IBM
moves solutions development unit to India
'Until this, we depended
on any number of solution development centres across the globe. We're
moving all of that development to India,' says Jeby Cherian, head of IBM's
new Global Solutions Delivery Centre in Bangalore. The company currently
employs about 39,000 workers in India, up from 23,000 a year
ago.
AT&T
outlines India investment plans
As part of
its plan to invest $8 billion to $8.5 billion globally in 2006, US-based
telecom company AT&T Inc. would be setting up an additional global
network node in Hyderabad. This would be the
company's fifth node in India after Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and
Chennai.
Adobe
to invest USD 200m in India over 5 yrs
The company would be
investing over $ 200m in the country over the next five years and will
ramp up its India headcount to 900, up from
the current 650, by the end of the year. India already accounts for 12%
of Adobe’s total global employee strength, and almost a fourth of its
global engineering strength.
NEC Corp to set
up new co in India to grow biz
The new
company would provide solutions for construction of communication
infrastructure and corporate IT and network infrastructure. NEC's
purchasing division established a liaison office in Chennai in 2002 as a
procurement support base mainly for offshore outsourcing of software
development. In December 2005, NEC System Technologies established a
joint venture company with HCL Technologies - NEC HCL System Technologies
Ltd - as a base for software development.
TietoEnator
Inks Outsourcing Deal With Latvian Trade Bank To Provide Core Banking
Services
TietoEnator has inked an
outsourcing deal with Latvian Trade Bank to provide core- banking and
payments services.
GeBBS
wins a BPO contract to provide offshore Medical Bill Review
...
Following the successful
completion of a pilot program, GeBBS will now commence data capture
services for Itemized Hospital Bills in addition to deploying AAPC
certified coders to analyze identify and correct billing, clinical, and
medical discrepancies.
Accenture buys BPO
specialist Savista - the cultural revolution
...
Accenture announced
earlier this week that it has agreed to buy Savista, a US-based provider
of business process outsourcing (BPO) services to mid-sized companies, for
an undisclosed amount
IT
services firm Darwin Partners has acquired China's
Suzsoft
A key reason for the deal,
which Darwin describes as a
'merger/acquisition,' is to provide IT customer insurance from too much
Indian outsourcing. 'Many of our customers were worried about too much
concentration in India,' said Paul Buntrock, Darwin's senior vice
president of Solutions Delivery.
Wipro
opens dedicated facility for Aviva in Pune
Wipro, has announced the
opening of its Global Command Centre (GCD) dedicated for Aviva, a UK-based
insurance firm. The centre will provide remote managed
infrastructure support for the IT infrastructure of RAC, a business
division of Aviva. Aviva selected Wipro in 2003 as a preferred
technology partner, following which Wipro Technologies set up an offshore
development centre in Bangalore and Pune to provide application
development and maintenance services across critical business
applications.
Intel, Tech
Mahindra Unveil Telecom Solutions Lab
Tech Mahindra and Intel
have launched a 'Next Generation Telecom Solutions Lab' at Tech Mahindra's
Pune development centre. The lab showcases Tech Mahindra's telecom
application proof-of-concepts on Intel carrier grade servers and is
available for ecosystem members, telecom equipment manufacturers and
telecom service providers worldwide.
CACI
Awarded $156 Million Contract to Support US Army Intelligence
...
CACI has been awarded a
USD 156 million contract for providing support to the University of
Military Intelligence (UMI) of the US Army Intelligence Centre (AIC).
The contract agreement will be valid for an eight-month base period
with four one-year extension options. CACI will provide UMI with IT,
training, and courseware development. CACI will also help the
Intelligence Centre in managing the enrolment, examination, and award of
credit for military intelligence
training. |
