Tata Communications, which has been awarded the status of “International Headquarters” by the government here, on Wednesday committed a fresh investment of 440 million Singapore dollars over the next four years.
“The official accreditation of international headquarter status by the Singapore government has come on the back of our long-term commitment and continued investment in the region,” Tata Communications MD and CEO Vinod Kumar said.
The incentive-based IHQ status, awarded by Singapore’s state investment agency Economic Development Board, would also see Tata Communication increasing its Singapore workforce by 60 per cent to 200 over the next four years.
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“One of the many benefits of placing our international headquarters in Singapore is the access to its world-class technical and business expertise,” Mr. Kumar said.
“We want to play a continued role in encouraging local innovation by employing the best local talent available, at all levels of the business,” Mr. Kumar said, referring to developing Singapore-based resources and manpower.
Speaking on the occasion, Tata Communications Chairman Suboth Bhargava said the status would give his company opportunities to participate in Singapore’s economy with access to local facilities.
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Tata Communications would be working with local research and development institutes of Singapore universities to further develop products for the communication sector.
Mr. Bhargava backed the drive for expansion overseas, saying 75 per cent of Tata Communications revenue was coming from international businesses now compared to just two per cent in 2002.
Speaking at the function, Singapore Senior Minister of State of Trade and Industry, S Iswaran acknowledged Tata Communications leadership in the sector.
“As part of its international headquarters, Tata Communications has located its global managed services control tower in Singapore. For this alone, it has a team of more than 100 highly skilled professionals and has set up a 66,000 sq ft Asia Pacific data centre and telecoms facility here,” he said.
Further to its services control tower, Tata Communications has also picked Singapore as a hub for its cloud computing initiatives.
Earlier this year, Singapore was selected for the first launch of its cloud service offering outside India.
“Our easy access to skilled infocomms talent, excellent connectivity as well as our reputation as a trusted location for data hosting, are attributes that have prompted companies such as Tata Communications, IBM and salesforce.com to select Singapore as their regional cloud computing hub to leverage on this growth in demand,” said Iswaran.
Citing industry data, Iswaran pointed out that 24 per cent of all companies in Asia use some form of cloud computing in 2010, up from 11 per cent in 2009.
Tata Communications is part of the 11 Tata Group of Companies with close to 2,000 employees in Singapore.