During his visit to China next week, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will address chief executives of Indian and Chinese infotech industry in Shanghai on June 26.

Organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the apex industry association for software and services companies in India, the agenda for the one-day summit is: 'India & China: Challenges and opportunities for the IT sector.'

According to Nasscom President Kiran Karnik, Vajpayee will deliver the inaugural address at the summit, which senior dignitaries of the Chinese government will also attend to get a first-hand view of the impressive strides that Indian IT industry has taken and the prospects for collaborations between the two countries.

"To coincide with the prime minister's visit from June 22 to June 27, Nasscom is leading a 15-member delegation of IT firms to promote IT cooperation with mainland China," Karnik said.

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Arun Shourie and Shanghai city information bureau director Fan Xiping are scheduled to deliver the keynote addresses at the Nasscom IT summit.

About 300 delegates, including Chinese officials, business leaders from mainland user industries and captains of Chinese IT firms will participate in the summit, being held for the first time.

The key sessions during the summit will focus on enhancing cooperation between the two nations in telecom, embedded software, banking and financial services sectors, and IT education.

"The summit aims is to strengthen IT ties between India and China. China's user industry can gain from India's expertise in software and services, and help improve its efficiency," Karnik said.

"At the same time, Indian IT companies can work with China in the area of chip design and telecommunication technology and use China as an offshore development centre to serve the Japanese market," Karnik affirmed.

The delegation will be led by Nasscom Chairman Som Mittal and will include chief executives and managing directors of leading Indian IT companies.

Prominent firms representing the delegation are Tata Consultancy Services, NIIT, Digital Globalsoft, Zensar Technologies, MphasiS BFL, Nucleus Software Exports, and vMoksha Technologies.