SHANGHAI --- Parker Hannifin, a global leader in motion and control technologies, put its automation manufacturing facility into operation in Wuxi Xishan Industrial Park on Monday, as part of its $100 million investment in the Chinese market.

The project, phase one of the Parker Hannifin Wuxi Xishan Industrial Park, is worth $20 million in investment, occupying a total area of 22,000 square meters, with 10,000 square meters allocated to manufacturing, said Steven Ong, managing director of Parker Hannifin China.

"The facility will lay a foundation in enhancing the production capacity of localized products to meet the needs from health care, food processing, renewable energy, engineering machinery and other rapidly developing industries in China,'' Ong said.

His words were echoed by Parker Hannifin Global Vice President Roger Sherrard, who said the rapid development of China's equipment manufacturing industry and technological capabilities have made the company aware of China as a critical growth market.

"It has urged us to accelerate our technological improvements to meet the needs of local demand,'' Sherrard said.

"The operation of the new facility also represents our significant commitment to increase our responsiveness to local demand.''

The new facility will be a platform to develop core products and technologies, provide innovative products and solutions to renewable energy, health care, food processing, engineering machinery, high-speed rail system and other rapidly developing industries.

To meet the objective, its Automation Group plans to increase local staff from the current 70 to 300, a large proportion of which will be engineers, said Adrian Tang, automation general manager of Parker Hannifin Motion & Control (Wuxi) Co Ltd.

Parker Hannifin Automation Group's business in China has experienced annual growth of 40 percent for seven years. ``The operation of the facility will ensure the continuity of its growth,'' Ong said.

He said funds will be injected into projects to move the company's instrumentation group and its other product groups into the Wuxi park in the wake of the automation group.

"We will take concrete steps to fulfill our promise to encourage the development of our various industries in China,'' he said.