The inevitability of Asian leadership
The highlight of the Asia Society Annual Conference held near Beijing in Tianjin China was the eloquence of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit who held her own admirably in the opening panel featuring the mayors of Tianjin, Singapore and Melbourne in a discussion on the paradox of growth and sustainability. In the face of some cynical pre conference comments on what an Indian city could teach the amazing infrastructure story that is China, Ms Dixit spoke passionately about the transformation of the city in both infrastructure and environment scores and was quick to rebut a question on dust creation by saying that Asia must be given its chance to create construction dust even as the West had done some decades ago!
The conference paid enough homage to the services sector in India and its role in India’s economic surge even as Ms Dixit spoke of the new cities of Gurgaon, NOIDA and Ghaziabad developing as part of the NCR. In a panel on innovation, our story on building a fifty billion dollar IT and BPO industry in record time with its resultant impact on employment and new aspirations for the middle class compared favourable with other success stories, like SUNTECH, the solar energy juggernaut based in Wuxi China and TDK, another Asian success story with global reach. But a journey through China, not just the developed cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing but also the developing destinations of Dalian, Wuxi and Tianjin brings the disparity in pace of infrastructure development into sharp focus.
A small town like Wuxi which was nothing more than a concept a decade ago has succeeded in attracting some of the best Fortune 500 names and many Japanese multinationals to establish production facilities there and the Wuxi New Development area is creating a full city dedicated to outsourcing. And contrary to expectations that infrastructure readiness is rarely followed by a conscious effort at brand building or global marketing, the President of the city and the Communist Party Secretary presented a grand vision over lunch which showed us that this is one city that means business, not just in manufacturing but also in services. A clear resource development and training plan, the willingness to attract companies, not just from India but also both the East and the West to invest in outsourcing centres and a willingness to build Wuxi as a destination with a difference – all these and more will make the little city a worthy challenger to Pudong and Shenzhen in the not so distant future. With many more cities taking a more proactive approach to attracting IT and BPO investment and the hunger of China’s youth to make careers in the global consulting business, these are locations that can give a run for the money to the seven Indian “leader” cities soon!
India’s dominance in IT and BPO, thanks to our long years of success and superior understanding of Western processes and the Western mind, is still intact but it is not advisable to rest on our laurels – the process of innovation eco-system creation across the length and breadth of the country needs to be accelerated !