India and China should combine their expertise in software and hardware to capture the global IT market, including the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Jonathan Choi, chairman of China-India Software Association, said on Tuesday.

"From India's point of view, China makes a strong partner in economy, it has more diversified software outsourcing industry, including self-developed software products and embedded software equipment and technology exports," he said at the ongoing IndiaSoft conference.

"China and India's development into this market is distinct by having more opportunities for cooperation than rivalry. The computer hardware sector in China is a strong sector and is estimated to be $90 billion by the end of 2002. India is strong in computer software and ITeS with annual exports exceeding $12.5 billion," he said.

India can provide software to be embedded in the electronic hardware manufactured by the Chinese. The Chinese can provide the hardware platform for software development in

India and mutually they can collaborate on R&D in software to serve the high-end market, Choi said.

Early preparation for the Olympics will generate government contracts for the design and supply of both IT systems and services, installation of multi-lingual information service system, data-integrity and security software systems and ticketing, he said.