Indian company Zensar Technologies has formed a joint venture with a Chinese software firm in Shenzhen that will boost the latter's bid to become a major global outsourcing centre.

"Zensar China will be a multi-million dollar Chinese corporation, adding tremendous value to the Shenzhen economy, generating employment and making the city a major outsourcing destination in the world," CEO of Zensar Technologies Ganesh Natarajan was quoted as saying by the Chinese media on Tuesday.

"We expect the joint venture to achieve some $1 million this year," Natarajan, head of the Pune-based company said, adding, "but in three years, the revenue is projected to rise to some $25 million, or nearly 20 per cent of the whole group."

Zensar, which held its first board meeting outside India in Shenzhen from August 8 to 10, has set up a joint venture with Broadengate Systems Inc, a software outsourcing service company.

Zensar has a 51 per cent stake in the venture, called Zensar Technologies (Shenzhen) Ltd., with the rest held by Broadengate Systems.

In the next two years, 200 Chinese software engineers will be sent to India to work or receive training for a certain period in batches, CEO of Zensar Shenzhen, Ashish Rahinj said.

The agreement also allows 12 Chinese software companies from the Shenzhen Software Park to use the Indian company's software outsourcing network and management systems, China Daily reported.

Zensar has decided to share most of its valuable software outsourcing management experience, global sales network and client resources with its new joint venture which is expected to cement Shenzhen's leading position in software exports in China, the newspaper said.

While transferring part of its outsourcing business from American and European clients to the Chinese joint venture, Zensar will develop new clients such as big foreign firms, multinational companies in China and some government departments with the joint venture, the report said.

"Although Zensar is not a very big software company in India, co-operation is extremely valuable because it is willing to share its sales network and client resources with Chinese software companies rather than merely taking advantage of our less costly IT professionals," director of the government-backed Shenzhen Software Park, Zeng Guozhong said.

"It's particularly important and helpful for local software companies, which are comparatively small, less informative and lacking an effective channel to reach foreign clients, to grow up and develop their own businesses," he noted.

He expected the software outsourcing business in Shenzhen could gain a growth rate of 50 per cent a year in the next few years.