Talks on the business of the global sourcing of services typically pitch India and China in a battle up to the finishing line. But here is one case where big brother India — by virtue of a head start in the global services industry — is extending a helping hand to the China.

Effort BPO, a Mumbai-based company, has signed a triparty agreement with two Chinese companies, AsiaStar, China’s largest private telco, and Triple Three, the investment arm of Mulitex, a $ 400 million Hong Kong-based export firm. The joint venture aims at setting up a 1,000-seat BPO unit in China. It will start by servicing the Chinese domestic market, and over time will offer BPO services to the global market.

The three partners will bring in different skill sets to the table. Poor spoken English and to a lesser extent written English, skills have been a critical reason for BPO services for the Western market not taking off in China. A value that Effort BPO is bringing in is training the employees of the new company in language skills. It will also train the staff in call center tools, technologies and operations, thus, replicating the success model from the Indian call center industry.

AsiaStar will help in opening the doors for the joint venture to their customer base in China. AsiaStar has access to over 60,000 SMEs in China; it also has a stronghold in the Chinese government that would help the new venture get government support, something that foreign companies have to struggle with when doing business in China. Mulitex will provide both financial and human resource administration to the new enterprise.

“The new entity, formed as a joint venture between the three companies, would be largely servicing the domestic Chinese customers to start with. Within the next three to four years, we will begin operations to serve the global market,” says Rajnish Sarna, Promoter and Director, Effort BPO.