Invests US$9 million in developing domestic business solutions market by 2008 SAP Korea has announced the official opening of its local research and development (R&D) center, aiming to build a solid base for the development of domestic software in Korea. SAP Korea held an opening ceremony on January 24 for its new R&D Center in the MMAA Building, the head office of SAP Korea. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Chin Dae-je, Korea's Minister of Information and Communication, Mr. Hans- Peter Klaey, President & CEO of SAP Asia Pacific, Mr. E.N. Han, CEO of SAP Korea. The center will be the first of its kind to attract foreign capital in the domestic business application software industry and will be managed under three guidelines: * To develop business solutions that are optimized to meet local requirements; * to foster and transfer knowledge to partners for developing localized solutions and * to develop new markets and introduce leading technologies from SAP. To achieve these goals, SAP AG plans to invest 9 billion Korean won (7 million Euros) in the R&D center by 2008. 'Korea welcomes the establishment of SAP Korea' local R&D center. I expect the center will make a great contribution to the development of the domestic IT industry by introducing leading technologies to the Korean market, said Chin Dae-je during the opening ceremony. Recognized as the IT leader in the world, Korea is one of the important markets for SAP. Established to commemorate the 10th anniversary of SAP Korea, the center will play a critical role in the development of the local business solutions market as well as undertake critical research for localized solutions, said Mr. Hans-Peter Klaey. The local R&D center will reinforce the global competitiveness of domestic enterprises and enable the continuous innovation of business processes. SAP AG's decision to invest in the local R&D center originated from discussions between Mr. Henning Kagermann, Chairman and CEO of SAP AG, and Mr. Chin Dae-je during Kagermann's visit to Korea in July last year. It was also heavily influenced by the survey results on the local market conducted by SAP AG and SAP Korea. Following that, SAP Korea submitted an application to the Korea Industrial Technology Association to build a local R&D center and the application was officially approved in October. The local R&D center is located on the 27th floor of SAP Korea's head office and headed up by Mr. Joh Hyuk-Jin, leader of a team of 17 people including a research advisor, 13 professional researchers and two research support staff. The center focuses on three main areas: solution development, research on managing information systems and core research.