IBM Opens 30th Branch Office in China

HOHHOT, China, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the opening of its 30th branch office to date in China, in the City of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. The office opening is part of a major geographic expansion initiative that IBM is driving to increase its presence in growth markets throughout the world. It takes the total number of IBM offices in growth markets to over 230 – an increase of 140 percent in the past 10 years.

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"With over 230 IBM branches in 53 growth market countries, we are actively strengthening our ability to provide high-value solutions to our clients and partners in the fastest growing markets in the world," said Bruno Di Leo, General Manager, IBM Growth Markets Unit. "China has long played a valuable role in IBM's business. As we expand our operations into new territories, it continues to provide a valuable source of growth and skills for the company."

With China's rapid economic growth over the past 20 years, Inner Mongolia has grown in strategic importance providing important links with Russia and Mongolia. The new branch office in Hohhot will best serve the needs of IBM's clients in the region. IBM already serves a number of key clients in Inner Mongolia spanning multiple industries including finance, telecommunications, healthcare, industrial and utilities. Having a direct presence in the region will not only allow IBM to increase its level of service to customers and partners, but allow it to deliver more complex and high-value solutions such as cloud computing and business analytics.

Another key growth area is the public sector where IBM is already cooperating with the Inner Mongolian government in the fields of e-government, skills development and Smarter Transportation. With the new office in Hohhot, IBM will be best positioned to help the Inner Mongolian government further strengthen its economic development and industrialization program especially in the establishment of IT parks. Leveraging IBM's expertise in cloud computing technologies, the Inner Mongolian government is looking at offering IT services to enterprises and organizations across China to spark a new wave of economic development in the region.

IBM has operated in China since 1979 when it shipped an IBM 370/138 mainframe server to Shenyang Air Blower Factory. In the mid to late 1990s, IBM was the first multinational company to establish joint venture plants in China and to set up R&D operations with the establishment of the IBM China Research Laboratory (CRL) in north-west Beijing. More recently, IBM opened a Global Rail Innovation Center, the IBM Analytics Solution Center, the IBM China Institute of e-government and the IBM Energy & Utilities Solutions Lab in the country. Shanghai is also the headquarters of IBM's Growth Markets Unit.

The new office in Hohhot was inaugurated at a ceremony last Friday attended by Mr. Zhao Shuanglian, Vice-Chairman, of the Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; Mr. Gang Buhe, Deputy Mayor of Hohhot City and Mr. DC Chien, General Manager, IBM Greater China Group.

For more information about IBM's Smarter Planet initiative please visit: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet.

SOURCE IBM