Bangalore: Bangalore IT.com 2003, an annual event being promoted as Asia's premier ICT meet, was launched on June 16 with bigwigs like the US, the UK and Germany already on board.

"Presence of foreign countries is doubling in a big way", Karnataka Information Technology secretary Vivek Kulkarni told reporters in Bangalore ahead of the formal launch by Union IT Minister Arun Shourie on June 16 evening.

The five-day event starts on the sprawling Palace Grounds in Bangalore from November 1. The US, the UK, Germany, Hong Kong and Belgium have already confirmed participation, officials said.

Also already on board are companies such as Infosys, TCS, Canon, BSL and Rolta, they said.

A total of 264 companies from 16 countries participated in the fifth edition in 2002, according to officials of organisers, Karnataka government and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) would be among the focus this year, Kulkarni said, adding small companies would be housed next to the IT nations pavilion so that they get a good opportunity to explore business tie-ups.

He said one day would be devoted for interaction between international, national and local regulators and industry players where issues of mutual interest would be discussed.

There would also be an outsourcing summit where industry experts would share perspectives of the international market, especially the US.

Open source software would be the focus in "IT for the Common Man" conference at the event.

Responding to a question, Kulkarni said Karnataka government is also encouraging open source software in e-governance projects. Right now, Microsoft platform has an edge because there are more trained people and the "risk is less" compared to open source, he said.

On the other hand trained people in open source is limited and applications are low, he said, but hastened to add that there would be a mix of Microsoft and open source software in e-governance projects.

PTI