Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry e-mail service and handsets, is expanding its Hong Kong operations to support a big push into the mainland and other Asia-Pacific markets.
The Canadian firm declined to provide investment figures, but said it would add about 10 more carrier-partners in the region, increase staff and release its portfolio of handsets across the mainland by the end of the year.
'Hong Kong boasts a superb business network, advanced infrastructure and a highly skilled labour force, making it an ideal location to base our Asia-Pacific operations,' RIM Asia-Pacific vice-president Norm Lo said last week.
'The opening of our expanded Hong Kong office will help us address the increasing opportunities that are being generated in this region.'
Mr Lo said forthcoming service launches started from Hong Kong would include partnerships with Taiwan Mobile and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. After launching its service in Asia in May 2002 with 3 Hong Kong, RIM now has 27 partners in 16 markets across the region.
By next year, the firm expects to double its staffing of about 100 people in the region - with Hong Kong employees supporting the build-up of its mainland operations. It has about 5,000 workers worldwide.