Software exports from 194 units in the city registered more than 100 per cent growth for the eighth successive year during 1998-99 and future trends were also very encouraging, a spokesman of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Hyderabad, said here.

A series of pro-active I T policies initiated by the state government, including setting up of of hi-tec city (Hyderabad Information Technology and Engineering Consultancy) and Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), has spurred the growth of the software industry, he said.

Software exports, which were to the tune of Rs 574.12 crore last year as against Rs 500 crore anticipated earlier, were likely to grow steadily and touch Rs 4,500 crore by 2004.

From a mere seven units in 1992 when STPI was established here, theindustry has notched up spectacular growth with as many as 194 software units being registered by the end of March last, he said.

Exports, mostly to United States, Canada, Japan, Netherlands and other European countries, had grown from a mere Rs 2 lakh in 1992 to Rs 574.12 crore last year. A remarkable feature of the growth of software industry was that as many as 82 new units were registered during 1998-99 alone and the value of software exports through datacom facilities had gone up by 80 per cent during the year and was likely to grow further with increased bandwidth and global reach.

The total capital investment proposed by the software companies here was of the order of Rs 321.29 crore, comprising Rs 102.25 crore by foreign investment, Rs 127.68 crore towards investment by residents and Rs 91.46 crore by commercial borrowings, the STPI sources said.

With renowned multinational companies and Indian companies joining the STP scheme and many more corporate bodies, NRIs evincing keen interest toestablish export houses in the city, the investments were expected to grown many fold in future.

Over 77 per cent of the total exports were effected through the datacom facilities and international satellite links were presently available to several countries including USA, Netherlands, Belgium and Singapore.

Satyam Computers heads the top ten exporters list from the state with Rs 125.15 crore exports, followed by Wipro with Rs 110.35 crore. Baan Info Systems India Limited (Rs 48.63 crore), Visualsoft ( Rs 0.93 crore) and D E Shaw India Limited (Rs 28.81 crore) are the rest of the ten top exporters.