Hong Kong's software companies are increasingly moving parts of their operations across the border, setting up development offices to take advantage of both the engineering talent and lower costs offered on the mainland.
Hong Kong Computer Society president and Pacific Century CyberWorks business e-solutions president Thomas Siu Hon-wah said the trend was strong and would probably pick up in the near future.
'Most large software development companies or even users' organisations have part of their operations in China. I think percentage-wise, almost half of the larger-sized organisations would have something in China,' he said.
Companies making the move include Hong Kong start-up We Software, which has about 14 staff based in Shenzhen, while a further 40 or so are in Hong Kong. According to We Software vice-president for sales and business development Ed Sindt, there are cost savings in moving engineering functions across the border, but clients are also asking the software testing and localisation firm to do more mainland projects.
'It's not so much that we have a push into China so much as we also have a pull into China,' he said.
Other companies are doing much of their Web site development over the border, or outsourcing business-software projects to mainland-based companies. Even Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Multimedia Innovation Centre has branched out to the mainland, with a centre in Zhuhai housing developers and course instructors.
Hong Kong Computer Society president and MTR Corp executive Daniel Lai said: 'We outsource to China, but I think it's still less than 10 per cent of development effort. But I know of a Hong Kong company that has the majority of their team - 60 per cent - in China.'