The company's Thai division was set up to support the ASIS Consortium, which was responsible for implementing the information-technology (IT) system at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

"We started with only one project. But our client base in Thailand has now grown to over 15. There is a lot of growth potential in Thailand, where there is an abundance of skilled labour. This is why we are considering expanding our development centre in Thailand. We already have centres in Singapore and Malaysia," said Virender Aggarwal, director and senior vice president of Satyam Computer Services Asia Pacific.

Satyam's client base in Thailand includes Chevron (Caltex) Thailand, Siam Commercial Bank, General Electric, Siam Nissan Automobiles, Saint Gobain and Siam Gypsum. The company has also worked with General Motors Thailand in previous years.

The firm's investment in Thailand is about US$500,000 (Bt17.92 million), but Aggarwal said people were the company's main asset and that for a software company, this was more important than any other resource.

Satyam reported revenues of more than $1 billion last year, and this is expected to reach $1.4 billion this year.

Revenues are generated from four sectors: 66 per cent from North America, 15 per cent from Africa and the Asia-Pacific, 18 per cent from Europe and 1 per cent from Japan.

"The Asean region is expected to see tremendous growth over the next few years, and the banking and telecom sectors are forecast to experience the fastest growth. With our expertise in the field and the purchase of Knowledge Dynamics in Singapore, we expect to be among the front runners for customers' choice," Aggarwal said.

Satyam decided to add Knowledge Dynamics to its group due to its specialisation in risk assessment in the banking sector.

Competition from Thai software companies is limited, mainly because they are not big enough to support major projects for large companies like TOT and Siam Commercial Bank.

"Satyam is a global software company, and our customer base is worldwide," said Aggarwal.

For this fiscal year, Satyam reported a 36-per-cent increase in profits from the previous one. The strongest growth in the IT sector next year is expected to be in Australia and New Zealand.

"Growth in the Asean region is strong, but the problem is there is no single market which is the driving force. Asean might be strong collectively, but individually each market is too small to produce much growth. After Australia and New Zealand, the next growth area is likely to be North Asia, which includes Taiwan, China [with Hong Kong] and South Korea," Aggarwal said.

He also stated that a big problem in Thailand was bringing in expats. Current policies make it very difficult for them to work in the Kingdom. Visa regulations are strict and involve a lot of red tape, which make bringing in foreign nationals a time-consuming process.

He added that a smoother visa process would help Thailand develop in a number of ways.

Vijo Varghese

The Nation