Oracle and EMC join Chinese gold rush

The IT giants are expanding their Chinese operations to support customers in Asia and the West

Just days after IT services giant Accenture announced it plans to double its presence in China, Oracle and EMC have both revealed they are to open new centres in the country.

EMC said it will open a new R&D and software development centre in Shanghai next month as part of its plans to invest $500m in the country over the next five years.

The new site is expected to employ 100 staff by the end of the year and will employ 500 developers by the end of 2008. These staff will focus on providing support and development for EMC's software portfolio, in particular working to localise offerings for the Asian market.

Joe Tucci, chairman, president, and chief executive of EMC, said in a statement that the new site is part of a long-term commitment to China that has seen EMC create partnerships with local firms and academic communities and invest in training centres to certify network storage specialists.

"We plan to more than double our current investment in China so that we can more fully tap into the country’s tremendous pool of talented engineers, contribute to its growing software industry, and accelerate the development of software-based solutions used by customers around the globe,” Tucci added.

Meanwhile, database giant Oracle has announced it will open an Oracle Global Support Center in the North Eastern Chinese city of Dalian. The centre will serve as a multilingual service desk providing technical support for Oracle customers in China, Taiwan and Korea initially, before expanding to serve other Asian markets.

The company said the new centre would provide a service hub for both multinational and local Chinese customers. It added that it had been attracted to Dalian by strong infrastructure, multilingual staff, government support and intellectual property protection.

The latest investments epitomise the three-pronged strategy of many global software and services firms operating in China: to set up sites capable of attracting customers in the burgeoning Chinese economy; to serve their existing multinational customers by investing in the region; and to exploit the technologically-skilled, low-cost workforce to provide offshore services to customers based in the West.