Annual Conference of Chinese Software Professionals Association

From SunHerald: Valley firms get advice on China

"The annual conference of the Chinese Software Professionals Association in Santa Clara Saturday brought together high-profile venture capitalists such as Lip-Bu Tan of Walden International and executives from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo as well as leaders of firms in China. (...)

Many painted a picture of China radically different than just a few years ago. Only a handful of Silicon Valley venture firms were in China four years ago. Now, more than a dozen have invested there, with more on the way. Venture financing in China rose to $1.3 billion in 2004, nearly a 30 percent jump from 2003, according to Walden Ventures. In addition, more than 250,000 Chinese from abroad have returned to China, including many from Silicon Valley, to work and start new businesses.

China's market is among the fastest-growing in many sectors. Opportunities abound in semiconductors, software and telecommunications, particularly mobile services, speakers said. Though China has long been tapped to manufacture older generations of technology, there are growing numbers of firms working on cutting-edge products, particularly in the semiconductor sector, said Tan, founder and chairman of Walden. He and others predict that over the next decade, Chinese companies will be technology innovators."