Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Tech giant EMC seeks to take advantage of emerging opportunity


via CAAI News Media

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:01 Ellie Dyer

MULTI-NATIONAL technology infrastructure firm EMC hopes to invest in Cambodia in order to make the most of emerging market opportunities, the company’s Asia Pacific president said Tuesday.

Steven Leonard told the Post, via phone from Singapore, that the US-based business has put US$2 billion aside to invest in the Asia-Pacific region by 2014.

He said the company, which competes with brands such as IBM and HP, is now looking to Cambodia for potential opportunities.

A group representative added via email that the Kingdom “has been identified as one of EMC’s fast-emerging growth markets across the Southeast Asian region”.

“We need to be in Cambodia and we want to do that in a more meaningful and substantial way,” said Leonard on Tuesday.

He added that EMC is working with a number of Cambodian telcos, which he declined to name.

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We need to be in cambodia and want to do that in a more meaningful way."
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EMC provides businesses with both hardware and software to secure or encrypt data such as billing records, bank systems and archives. It has 43,000 employees across the world and earned $14 billion in revenue in 2009. Around 12 percent of revenue is currently derived from the Asia-Pacific region.

On Sunday, 400 representatives of the company completed a two-day event detailing their achievements in Siem Reap. Leonard, who returned from the Kingdom to Singapore days ago, has carried out several fact-finding missions to see where potential opportunities may lie and has met with government officials.

He added that EMC as yet has no permanent presence in the Kingdom, an issue they are currently considering.

“Cambodia is at a real transition intersection. There are so many opportunities. The country is rising up from a difficult past.

“A lot of companies have been here since the 1990s, but in terms of multi-nationals there is still an opportunity to get in early. I hope we can be a part of Cambodian growth,” said Leonard, before adding that software provision is “at the ground floor” of development in Cambodia.

The president added that, to his knowledge, no similar firms yet have a presence in the Kingdom. He said he believes that multinational entry into Cambodia has “an important part to play” in creating a diverse business community.

“It’s a foundation for Cambodia, or any other country, to continue to develop IT to help give opportunities to citizens,” he said, citing the benefits for education and knowledge expansion that technology can bring.

He was unable to say how much money EMC is set to invest in the Kingdom.

EMC has already announced investment in India, where it is expanding infrastructure at the India Center of Excellence, and Singapore, where it is opening its first technology development lab outside of North America. It has also sought out investment opportunities in China.

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