India and China may eyeball each other along their contentious common border, but a contrasting story unfolded thousands of kilometres away in Bangalore even as External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met in the city on Tuesday to address irritants in ties.

Six members of a Chinese government delegation are spending their work week in this technology hub, intensely wooing India’s software companies and talent to Chengdu, a city in western China.

Seemingly oblivious to the fierce “Twenty-first century rivalry”, the Chinese officials said they were solely focused on business opportunities.

“India’s outsourcing companies have done so well globally, we want them to set up in China and help grow our services sector,” said Zhu Yunkai, a director of Chengdu’s Tianfu Software Park.

Tianfu, China’s largest software park, is government-owned.

India and China, the world’s two most populous countries have the advantage of an abundance of low-cost talent. China outshines India in almost every sphere of commerce and has the biggest chunk of global business whether in textiles or toys.

But in the battle for the global software business, India holds a clear edge. China now wants to replicate the Indian model.

Even as the Chinese delegates participated in back-to-back business meetings, a few kilometres away in another of Bangalore’s luxury hotels the foreign ministers of India and China confabulated on touchy bilateral issues.

“If these two big countries can work together, it will be the perfect 21st century partnership,” said Christine Du, the deputy director of Chengdu’s Hi-tech Development Zone.

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