Malaysia no longer IT pariah; Satyam to ramp up presence

Prachi Verma & Rohit Bansal - New Delhi

Kiran Karnik

The brouhaha surrounding the arrest of 270 Indian IT professionals in Malaysia last month is settling down. In a sign of ‘business as usual’, Satyam Computer Services said it will ramp up its presence in Malaysia. A senior Satyam official said that the IT and consulting firm has won a new order and is placing 100 professionals there, besides formally inaugurating its Malaysian office later this month. He did not specify the client or the size of the job.

“We have six clients in Malaysia and they are serviced by 25 employees. We are going ahead with the (250-seater development centre) project and are watching the SARS situation carefully to decide on the actual date for formal inauguration of our office,” Satyam APAC vice president Virender Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal disagreed that Mahathir Mohammed’s government is hostile to Indian IT professionals. “Our strategy has been to work closely with the (Mahathir) government and never lose sight of the local economy and local talent,” a Singapore-based Satyam official said.

“It has been decided to spearhead the focus in ASEAN countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc, from our Malaysian operation,” he added.

Indian IT’s kiss-and-make-up with Malaysia is no accident. Nasscom estimates that the market for Indian software and services in South East Asia and in the Far East—presently contributing 12 percent ($876 million) to Indian software and services exports—will touch $2.7 billion by 2008. “We are glad that there are companies looking at setting up operations in Malaysia despite the unfortunate incidents of the past. Nasscom along with the government will continue to take all proactive steps to safeguard the interests of the Indian IT industry,” Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said. “We have been talking to companies to spread operations to other countries in order to tap new markets and de-risk business,” Karnik said.

— The Financial Express