NEWS BRIEFS
Bangalore, INDIA — Networking giant Cisco Systems Inc said on Thursday that it would invest $150 million to expand its technology development center in India over the next two years.
“This will be Cisco’s second-largest research and development (R&D) facility globally and the largest outside the U.S.,” Jayshree Ullal, Cisco’s vice president and general manager, Enterprise Line of Business, told a news conference in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
Cisco officials said the company had already invested $75 million in India since January 1996. The current announcement relates to fresh investments, they said.
Ullal said the R&D facility would be based in Bangalore and increase its workforce to 1,500 tech professionals over the next two years from the current 500.
“This center will play a strategic role in Cisco’s ability to rapidly develop technologies…and quickly deploy solutions and products that customers are demanding,” she said. Cisco officials said the investment was part of the firm’s strategy to tap the rapid business growth in the Asia Pacific region.
Gary Jackson, vice president of Cisco’s Asian operations, said the Asia Pacific region accounted for 10 percent of the company’s revenues of $18.9 billion for the year to July 2000.
“Asia Pacific grew over 90 percent year-on-year, the fastest growing part of Cisco worldwide,” Jackson said.
“We are seeing phenomenal growth in the Internet and telecommunications markets in India, and there is tremendous potential for the country to establish itself as a leader in the Internet economy,” he said.
Ullal said Cisco was also developing technologies in India in partnership with software services firms Infosys Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and some technical education institutions.
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