Despite pressure from the financial crisis to cut costs and rein in spending, Chinese firms are continuing to invest in the information technology sector, even in the most severely hit banking, automotive and real estate industries.

Firms across China are looking to cut costs and differentiate themselves from rivals by expanding their IT commitment. IT vendors too are flocking to China to meet demand as well as establish a strong base in the country while their overseas businesses suffer from the effects of the crisis.

The slowing economy has had the worldwide impact of making people focus on business process outsourcing business models, the convergence of IT and telecom services, and the continued importance of quality and security, according to Ovum, a global IT consulting firm.

"In this challenging economy, IT services providers must get ahead of these trends as they work to capture new customers and keep the ones they have," said Eamonn Kennedy, an Ovum analyst.

Finance

"It's a headache for me as too many (IT systems) can be upgraded and I don't know which should be first," said Patrick Bai, general manager of Bank of Shanghai's Information Technology Department.

Hewlett-Packard, Temenos, a global provider of banking software systems, and Bank of Shanghai said on Wednesday they had implemented a core banking system at Bank of Shanghai to streamline operations, reduce the time it took for new products to hit the market, and improve services for the bank's customers.

Bank of Shanghai, the country's major city commercial bank, said the system would enable them to better manage approximately 13 million customer accounts and process more than 2.5 million transactions per day from one point of contact. The integrated system covered multi-currency and both personal and corporate bank business, which used to be separate, the bank said.

Bai said the bank would continue to expand spending on IT next year despite the tough environment. Advances would be made in customer relationship management and Internet and mobile banking services, he said.

By comparison, in the United States financial sector, there had been almost "no increased spending" except to cut costs, experts said. As a result, Hewlett-Packard was seeking opportunities in the emerging markets of China and India, said Michael Blum, HP's vice president.

By 2012, the investment of the Chinese finance industry in IT would reach 13.76 billion yuan (US$2 billion), a 7.9-percent average annual growth, according to International Data Corp.