Destination Xi'an, China

Xi'an is emerging as China's latest entrant into the offshoring world. With worldclass universities and revamped infrastructure and very low labor costs, Xi'an has everything going for it... by Raghuram Archana and Seal Vivek

Xi'an is China's latest entrant into the offshoring space. It has a lot going for it - young graduates, low salaries, infrastructure development and government attention. "Xi'an's software park is almost like a fortress with the highest level of security measures in place," says Bill Lewis, Joint Managing Director, Temasys International. Destinations like Wuhan, Xi'an and Chongqing in China are emerging as Tier 3 hubs for R&D and software.

Education

• 100 universities (3-4 of them are among the top 10 universities of China)
• 700,000 students into further education
• 40,000 computer science graduates approximately every year
• Important base for scientific research. Sixty percent of China's lattest manned spacecraft, Shenzhou VI, originated in Xi'an's research and development institutes.

Industry and Infrastructure

• Spent $1.5 billion on infrastructure development in the past two years
• The ITO and BPO ratio is approximately 80:20
• CompuPacific, one of China's largest BPO companies, is based in Xi'an
• Xi'an's Hi-tech Industries Development Zone (XHTZ) is a 30 km area consisting of manufacturers, R&D laboratories, a science park, software park and an emerging BPO industry
• Companies like Intel, Fujitsu, Philips, Sybase, Nortel, Thoughtworks, Agilent, Kingdee, NEC and Huawei already have an offshoring presence in Xian
• Xi'an is getting work from the state and the federal level of the U.S. government and the state level of the Australian government.

Salaries

• Salaries in Xi'an are lower than in other Tier 2 Chinese cities like Guangzhou by almost 30%
• Salaries of software engineers in Xi'an start at US$200-$300 per month at graduate level, rising to US$300–$600 per month with three years experience, and over US$600 per month for experienced project managers.