Bangalore: Software and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) exports from Bangalore is expected to grow by 30 per cent to 35 per cent this fiscal over the 2002 exports of Rs 13,000 crore, Software Technologies Park of India (STPI) director B V Naidu said on October 29.

"We are expecting a 30 per cent to 35 per cent growth in exports over last year. The growth is above the national average and indications are it is on an upward swing," Naidu told reporters at the "Curtain Raiser" of Bangalore IT.COM 2003 to be held in Bangalore between November 1 and 5.

Attributing the growth to increased interest by foreign firms to leverage Information Technology (IT) skills in India for improving their efficiency, he termed this as a "second IT wave".

Naidu said 44 of the 66 IT firms started since April 2003 were with foreign equity and had invested over Rs 642 crore, a 44 per cent jump over 2002.

"This year, we did not need to hard sell Bangalore as earlier. Bangalore has become the chosen destination for global corporations who want to improve their efficiency from India," he said.

He said the software exports in the first six months in 2003 were over Rs 7,200 crore, a 65 per cent growth over the same period in 2002.

Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, has about 1,186 IT and BPO firms and employs 1.1 lakh software professionals and 55,000 in the BPO sector, Naidu said.

PTI