Toronto: He is only 12 years of age and is still in the seventh grade but this "whiz kid," as the Canadian mainstream media calls him, has found a place in a high-powered business delegation traveling to China.

Keith Peiris, a Sri Lankan Canadian who is president and CEO of Cyberteks Design of London, Ontario, is accompanying Prime Minister Jean Chretien on his Team Canada mission to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong next month, says his father Deepal.

Deepal Peiris, an accountant by profession who is now a full time employee of his son's Web design and e-commerce company, told IANS the family is "very excited, (and) Keith is very excited having got this opportunity to travel to China."

According to Deepal Peiris, who is accompanying his son as part of Chretien's team, the company has already fixed up several business meetings in China, but he wouldn't disclose the names of the Chinese firms with which discussions are to be held.

Cyberteks Design has proudly announced on its Web site that Keith is accompanying Chretien and listed 15 top awards from the industry that he has already received, along with a number of other honors. The awards were instrumental in the company winning major Web site contracts from Rogers TV's for its new interactive real estate game show, for designing Web pages of the Canadian consulates in New York and Detroit, as well as from Interep, a major US radio advertising company, and Kewl Threads, a hockey apparel company owned by Canada's Maple Leaf.

Keith himself was not available for comment as he was at his St Bernadelle's School in London, Ontario. His father said that so far Cyberteks has designed around 25 Web pages of major companies and has offices in several US cities, including Detroit and Washington.

Cyberteks was listed amongst the top 50 Web design companies in Canada. The list was prepared and published in the National Post's business magazine of March 2000. In an address in 1999, California-based Macromedia chairman and CEO Robert Burgess introduced Keith as one of the youngest Web designers in North America to use Macromedia flash in commercial Web sites. That was when Keith was barely 11 years old.

Keith, his father said, started playing with computers when he was only three years old. Deepal Peiris takes credit for inducing his son to take interest in the computer and the Internet.

According to a National Post report, Keith's Cyberteks "is already pulling in six figures in annual revenues." Deepal Peiris wouldn't reveal the exact figures or what the company charges for designing a Web page.

India Abroad News Service