Mobile security and applications company SmarTrust, a unit of Finnish telecommunications firm Sonera, will set up a wireless applications development centre in Hong Kong's Cyberport.
The unit has had its tenancy application approved by Cyberport admissions committee. Sonera, listed on Nasdaq and the Helsinki stock exchange, is Finland's largest mobile communications operator.
'The Asia-Pacific region business represents a major success for us, and an even more important opportunity in the future for SmarTrust,' said deputy chief executive Anders Ingestrom.
Simon Galpin, associate director-general of investment promotion, said: 'With the issue of 3G [third-generation] telecommunications licences in Hong Kong, there will be many more business opportunities for companies like Sonera SmarTrust to invest in Hong Kong.'
The Hong Kong Government hopes to make Cyberport an information technology (IT) showpiece and the focus of its attempts to create a Silicon Valley-type community. The HK$15 billion joint venture between the Government and Pacific Century CyberWorks was regarded as a 'would-be campus' for IT giants.
But with the economic slowdown hitting technology firms, real-estate agents are increasingly worried about interest of international companies in leasing Cyberport space. The phase-one buildings, at Telegraph Bay, Pokfulam, are due to be ready in March.