Tech group sends 60 trainees
The 60 places for software development training were contested by more than 700 young graduates, said Satyam SA’s country manager Chittaranjan Jena. They will join almost 30 students already being trained in India, with Satyam promising full-time jobs for them all.
The government has agreed to support all 60 recruits by paying their living allowance, subsidising the R340000 it costs to train each student. They would be able to serve companies in SA and the rest of Africa as a whole once they had gained the software skills, said Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju.
“We believe there are clear growth opportunities in this region,” he said.
Raju is in Johannesburg this week for a tripartite summit to strengthen trade links between India, Brazil, and SA. Today he and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet President Thabo Mbeki and other officials from the three countries.
“There will be a no-holds-barred discussion on political, economic and social issues of national importance,” he said. “There are many opportunities to work together and some of the steps we have taken as a company could be done on a much larger scale through exchange programmes.”
Raju would raise the issue of black empowerment demands made on foreign companies with regard to equity ownership. Foreign players can seek exemption from selling 25% of the subsidiary in SA to black partners, but are expected to invest in projects that help black businesses to flourish.
Raju will argue Satyam should earn its empowerment points for the high number of students in SA it is training.
The government should not judge firms on the basis of whether they had domestic owners, but by how many jobs they could generate. Strict equity- owning criteria could hamper growth and strangle foreign firms’ ability to create more jobs in SA, he said.
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