New firm unveils local plan
( 2002-05-10 09:38 ) (1 )

Hewlett-Packard (HP), a newly merged company forged between the former Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer Corp, reiterated on Thursday in Beijing that the Chinese market will continue to be one of its most important in its global development.

On Tuesday, HP Chief Executive Carly Fiorina announced the formal launch of the combined firm.

The combined companies, which will operate under the HP nameplate, will re-organize into four divisions including Enterprise Systems Group, HP Services, Imaging and Printing, and the Personal Systems Group and aims to re-brand some of its products.

"In China, our business will also be classified into the same four groups," said Sun Zhenyao, president of HP (China).

HP (China) now includes former HP's and Compaq's market in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

"China has already become the hot spot for the international IT market. The mainland market will be the key target in the coming years for HP," Sun emphasized on Thursday at a press conference.

"Also, we are considering cutting employment as it is inevitable for our re-organization to cut jobs and reduce costs," he added.

According to Sun, details about job cuts in the Chinese market are not available now. "But we will handle this in line with related laws and regulations," he added.

On Tuesday, Fiorina announced plans to trim 15,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years.

Paul Chan, Hewlett-Packard's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, said on Wednesday that the computer giant "will have an idea of what we need" by the end of July.

HP's Asia-Pacific operations, which exclude Japan, employ 20,000 of the company's roughly 145,000 workers.