TEL AVIV - It is not new that Israeli software companies would look to India for employees, but now the Indian high-tech industry is also looking for business links in Israel.

The Indian government recently announced an ambitious national goal: to increase the volume of the local high-tech industry 20-fold, to $100 billion, within a decade.

In September, 1999, Israel's Association of Software Companies and its Indian counterpart, the National Association of Software and Service Companies, signed a cooperation agreement.

"A high-tech company looking for partners in India can come to NASSCOM, which can find suitable high-tech companies for it," says Harsh Vardhan Sringala, India's commercial consul for economic affairs in Israel.

Israel software association chairman, Amiram Shor, believes that the Israeli and Indian high-tech sectors are symbiotic. While the Israeli high-tech industry, particularly the software sector, is strong on research and development, the Indian software sector primarily provides outsourcing to other companies.

"Israeli software companies provide the knowledge, and the Indian software companies provide the personnel," Shor says.

But Israeli companies are apprehensive about cooperating with Indian companies for outsourcing, because research and development arms of these companies tend to be secretive about their work prior to completion.

Shor says aid from international organizations with regard to marketing, integration and maintenance of products and technologies could overcome the fear of technological cooperation.

Sringala believes that meetings between representatives of the companies can dispel fears of intellectual property theft.

And he says that India is advancing not only in outsourcing but also in research and development.

"Companies from both countries can participate in joint projects in India," Sringala says. "India itself offers many opportunities for Israeli companies."

The Indian software industry is the economy's most dynamic sector, and its growth has been impressive. From 1990 to 1998, it grew at an annual rate exceeding 50 percent - double the rate of the U.S. software industry in the same period. In 1992 the Indian software market totaled $50 million, but by 1999 it had leapt to an estimated $5 billion. In 1999, software exports represented nearly 4.5 percent of India's total exports, and according to estimates, this figure will reach 23 percent by 2002. By that time, estimates say, it will be India's main export industry.