Infy to build 1000-seat Shanghai dev centre

Infosys Technologies will spend $10 million to build a 1000-seat campus in Shanghai, China, in two years, the Bangalore-headquartered IT services exporter told the stock exchanges on Wednesday.

Through Infosys Technologies Shanghai Company, its Chinese subsidiary, Infosys has signed a letter of intent with Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park to set up the 25,000 sq m (2.64 lakh sq ft) development campus. Infosys has about 250 employees in China, the firm said.

James Lin, chief executive and managing director of Infosys Shanghai, said that the new centre will undertake projects in software development, IT Services and IT-enabled services. The centre will also act as one of the training and research centres of the company, Lin said.

The project is expected to start by January 2006 and will have state of the art technological infrastructure for software services and recreational facilities for employees, similar to other development centres of Infosys, the firm said.

Infosys website says, it has invested an initial capital of $5 m to start the Chinese subsidiary. It has a 200-people development centre in the Shanghai Pudong Software Park in China, serving as an alternate delivery hub for Infosys in the Asia Pacific region.

Online news portal, InfoWorld, had reported in August last year, "Infosys is building up its operations in China to tap into demand for IT outsourcing from Japanese and South Korean companies as well as from multinational companies that are doing business in China."

In the future, the company also hopes to be well positioned to provide outsourcing services to Chinese companies, the portal had quoted an Infosys China executive.

Lin said, "Infosys follows a strategy of setting up world-class software development centres in locations where there is rich local talent as well as the required infrastructure. Our new development centre in Shanghai will stand as a testimony to China's significant strides in the promotion of IT."

The agreement was signed by Chen Jianbo, CEO, Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Company Ltd and James Lin. N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys was present.