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Tuesday, 2 November 2004 | Levent OZLER
Agilent Seeks To Install Design Center In Korea
Agilent Technologies Inc. wants to setup a design center in Korea for its next generation wireless communications products, said chairman, president and chief executive officer Edward W. Barnholt.
"Korea is a leading player in information technology and wireless communications. With many domestic companies making inroads in the global market, we felt that a design centre here would help us serve our clients better," he said.
Barnholt said that the talks with government officials are still in a preliminary stage and it could take about a year for plans to materialize.
"Since nothing has been finalized, I would not like to speculate on the size of the investment and other finer details at the moment. But, certainly we are very keen to setup a design centre. Agilent already has a research and development centre in China, but the Korea facility will cater solely to the wireless communications industry. Korea being our fourth largest market in terms of order size, it should help us penetrate the market deeper," he said.
The U.S. company delivers innovative technologies, solutions and services to a wide range of customers in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The main products include test and measurement equipment, semiconductor products, solutions for communications and chemical analysis.
"The breadth and depth of our expertise enable us to offer solutions across our customers' entire product life cycle from research and development to manufacturing to installation and management." he said.
With approximately 28,000 employees around the world, Agilent serves customers in more than 110 countries. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, it has facilities in more than 30 countries and develops products at manufacturing sites in United States, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The company has had a presence for more than 30 years in Korea and currently has more than 250 employees at five sites.
The Agilent chairman said that to begin with, the design centre would be very small, but would expand. As the market grows and the demand for wireless products increases, the design centre will be ready to support the industry, he said.
"One of the main reasons that attracted Agilent to Korea was the huge reservoir of educated and skilled manpower. The government too has been supportive of business, which is a very important for foreign companies which want to make huge investments," he said.
Barnholt said that close to 67 percent the company's net revenue is derived from outside the United States.
(ram@heraldm.com)
By Rambabu Garikipati
Source : http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/htm...00411030019.asp
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