When contacted, the vice president of IEC software, Mr Naveen Kumar, told The Financial Express that IEC is setting up a joint venture company in Shanghai in partnership with a Chinese company. The joint venture will facilitate the IEC entry into China and Japan markets as the Chinese partner has business presence in Japan too, he said.

The new company will be involved in the business of IT education, offshore and onsite software development market in China and Japan, said Mr Kumar. He, however, refused to divulge the name of the foreign partner saying that the deal is yet to be signed formally.

This will be the second business initiative of IEC in the Asian market as it already has a wholly-owned subsidiary in Malaysia called IEC Infotech to tap the business in Malaysia and Indonesia.

When asked why the company is expanding in the Asian region while all other software companies are tapping the US and the European market, Mr Kumar said that IEC already has a presence in the US through a joint venture with a local company. The joint venture is involved in executing a couple of ERP re-engineering projects.

Mr Kumar said "we are not bullish about the US market as it is already crowded with many companies while the developing countries in Asia like Indonesia and China offer better opportunities for small and medium software companies. Moreover, it is easier to enter these market as setting up business operations need less investments in developing countries, he added.

Talking about the other future plans of IEC, Mr Kumar said that the company is planning to enter into e-governance applications business in a big way as all the state Governments and departments in India would be computerising their operations in next 2-3 years.