World IT giant, German-based SAP, launched its fifth global support centre on Wednesday in this port city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"It is a milestone for SAP to set up a global centre in the city to serve more than 7,000 clients at a higher level in Northeast Asia," said Klaus Zimmer, president of SAP Greater China.

In addition to centres in Ireland, Spain, Austria and India, SAP Global Support Centre China-Dalian delivers proactive support with a special focus on China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, he said.

With clients including covering 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 firms, SAP is the world's largest inter-enterprise software company and the world's third largest independent software supplier providing collaborative business solutions for almost all types of industries, said Zimmer.

SAP initiated its business in China with software ERP training in East China's Shanghai 11 years ago.

Having witnessed the economic shift from south to north, SAP now provides localized solutions to hundreds of private entrepreneurs and the State-owned enterprises in China including Sinopetro, Sinotrans, Haier and Lenovo, said Zimmer.

"SAP's market in Northeast Asia is one of its largest and is continuously growing. Demand from this market for SAP nearshore and offshore services is getting stronger," said Zimmer.

The decision to set up a centre in Dalian, with an investment of US$12 million, was influenced by the city's convenient telecom infrastructure, its multi-lingual capabilities, frequency of flights and the strong commitment of the local government.

SAP is one of the 18 Fortune 500 companies, including GE, IBM, Dell, Sony and Accenture, to set up software R&D centres, BPO centres or call centres in the city as a base for their northeast Asia business, said Mai Dezhong of the IT Industry Bureau of Dalian.

(China Daily September 17, 2004)