Ibm Opens Office In Chiang Mai

[george]

IBM opens in Chiang Mai

BANGKOK: -- IBM Thailand has opened a branch office in Chiang Mai, its first outside Bangkok, and aims to cover its customers in the country's upper North from there.

Country general manager Thanwa Laohasiriwong said Chiang Mai province was the centre of business in the northern region and there were opportunities there for expansion. The new branch office will support IBM's business partners and customers from both the government and private sectors.

The branch office is in The Office Plus building, near Chiang Mai International Airport, and has floor space of 70 square metres. It will also be a service centre for clients and business partners in the North and will have a full-time staff of 11 to provide integrated solutions, including hardware, software and services, under an information-technology-clinic concept.

IBM currently has 20 business partners in Chiang Mai and more than 100 in the northern region, as well as existing customers.

The company expects to focus on the fields of education, healthcare, tourism and manufacturing in the North. However, it is also planning to provide sourcing services in Chiang Mai and the northern region in the near future.

"IBM believes that Chiang Mai province has business opportunities and is a potential market in which IBM can provide hardware, software and services to customers and support its business partners. We will also help to develop information technology in the region," Thanwa said.

Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce president Narong Kongprasert said that organisations and companies in both the government and business sectors in the North now used information technology (IT).

Moreover, Chiang Mai has potential for business expansion because it is the regional hub for education, healthcare services and tourism. Chiang Mai University produces 1,500 IT students per year and local people have increased their spending on IT support for their daily lives.

US consul-general Michael Morrow said Chiang Mai was the gateway to doing new business in Vietnam, Laos and Burma.

-- The Nation 2010-02-22

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