HP targets Thailand for emerging markets strategy

HP targets Thailand for emerging markets strategy

Vietnam, Indonesia other regional picks

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest technology firm, has selected Thailand as one of its 14 strategic emerging countries to invest in to capitalise on potential IT spending growth.

Dhanawat: Preparing for AEC in 2015

The California-based firm also restructured its local operating structure by shifting from a product segmentation to industry-based customer strategy.

"We want to assist the Thai government and private firms to apply technologies to improve their competitiveness in preparation for the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015," said Dhanawat Suthumpun, the new managing director of Hewlett-Packard (Thailand).

HP also expects to gain more revenue from the higher-margin sales of software and IT management services instead of relying on hardware sales.

Narinder Kapoor, the managing director and a vice-president of HP Southeast Asia, said Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have all been selected for investment.

HP will invest, hire more employees and improve technology facilities over the next three years.

Mr Kapoor said HP sees promising growth in the Thai market thanks to its population, economic growth rate and development of IT.

HP provides cloud computing, information management and business analytics, application management, enterprise security, converged IT infrastructure and ePrint.

"These technologies are high-growth areas that companies are spending on to improve their competitiveness and reduce cost," said Mr Dhanawat.

Banking, telecom, health care, manufacturing and retail are target industries that need to adapt to survive in the AEC.

HP is in talks with the information and communication technology minister about cooperating on the government's cloud and content management projects for the education sector.

Mr Dhanawat said HP is expanding its footprint upcountry this year. It is especially focused on 12 high-growth provinces.

He said HP Thailand aims to grow its revenue at a double-digit rate this year, on a par with the IT industry.

Mr Kapoor did not comment on online rumours the HP group plans to combine its imaging and printing group with its personal systems group.

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