BT looks to Far East for developer talent

BT is stepping up its operations in China by setting up a new Technology and Service centre and R&D facility in the country.

The Technology and Service centre will be in Dalian, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, and will provide software development and support services.

BT is aiming to tap into the rich pool of software development professionals in China that specialise in operational and business support systems.

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The centre will also boost local language support for local customers whose first language isn't English as Dalian is one of the few Chinese cities with Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean speakers.

This means the support desk will be able to serve BT customers across the whole northeastern part of the Asia Pacific region.

The R&D centre in Shanghai will deal with a wide range of technologies and help customers and partners use new technology and encourage an exchange of knowledge, BT said. The telco already has R&D centres in Malaysia and the UK and works with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications to take top graduates to work at the company's Adastral Park centre, near Ipswich in the UK.

BT is also working with Shenzhen-based tech company Huawei on network technology research.

BT Group CEO Ben Verwaayen said with more than 400 million "rising consumers" in China and the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the way, many global customers are keen to take advantage of China as "a key growth market".

He added that setting up the new facilities will help guarantee that Chinese and global customers will receive a similar level of service provided in the rest of the world.

BT already provides networked services to a number of global corporations in China and aims to double its Chinese revenue by 2008/09.

Around 60 employees have already been recruited for the service centre and BT hopes to have 17 developers and research scientists on board by the end of the year.