India's Satyam plans big rise in China staff

Shanghai, May 30: Satyam Computer Services Ltd. , India's fourth-largest software exporter, plans to increase its staff in China roughly ten-fold over the next two years as its business in the country booms.

Employees in China will rise to around 3,000 by the end of 2008 from 300 at present, a company spokeswoman quoted Raghavendra Tripathi, head of Satyam's China operations, as saying on Tuesday.

The Satyam group had about 28,600 employees at the end of March this year.

Satyam, which has research centres in the large Chinese cities of Shanghai, Dalian and Guangzhou, would hire many of its new staff in smaller cities to avoid wage inflation, Tripathi said.

Satyam's shares have fallen 4 percent so far this year, lagging a 15 percent gain for the benchmark index.

Reuters