Saturday, August 2, 2003
Sun to double size of Beijing software unit
Reuters Hong Kong, August 1
Sun Microsystems will double the size of its software development centre in Beijing over the next year, raising the total head count to about 300 engineers, the head of the centre said on Friday.
Sun opened the centre two years ago, and currently uses it as part of its worldwide network for software development.
The centre is also the main design facility for the Netscape browser, which Sun develops under a license from AOL Time Warner, said the centre's managing director, Li Gong.
He said the Beijing facility now costs about $10 million a year to operate, but that will climb to about $15 million with the expansion.
"This is a company-wide research and development centre, just like sites in the US," he said, adding that Sun has a similar centre in India. "We cover the entire Sun product line."
Sun is one of a growing number of western companies to open software development centres in China to take advantage of the market's relatively low costs and well-trained workforce.
Other companies with software centres in the country include Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.
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