MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 11, 2011) - A subsidiary of Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) on Monday said it is eyeing to double its workforce next year for its research and development center at U.P.-Ayala LandTechnohub in Quezon City, the Philippine News Agency reported.
It said on the sidelines of the launching of NetworkLabs, Cesar Jacinto Castro, country director of NSN, told reporters that his company targets a total employment of 500 this year and about 1,000 employees next year.
NetworkLabs currently employs close to 300 IT specialists and management staff and its hiring a rate of about 100 to 200 high level software developers quarterly.
ETSI Technologies, Inc. established the P2 billion research and development center, which is seen to strengthen the IT and telecommunications industry in the Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino III was present during the launching ceremonies of the center named NetworkLabs at the U.P.-Ayala LandTechnohub which will be part of the global research and development operations of NSN that aim to develop the future of communications technology and connect the next billion people.
Paul Tyler, NSN head of Asia Pacific Region, said the company chose the Philippines as its new hub NetworkLabs in Asia among other countries because of its confidence in the country's vast resource of skilled engineering students and graduates from reputable universities and colleges like Mapua Institute of Technology, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University.
"NSN aims to provide the opportunity for the Filipino engineers to showcase their skills and knowledge on a global scale without having to leave their families yet benefit from the trainings, work exposure and globally scaled challenges NetworkLabs has to offer," Tyler said.
NetworkLabs is the first and one of its kind research and development center in Southeast Asia that is internationally recognized in telecommunications and has been supporting all research and development teams around the world.
With its Philippine Economic Zone Authority accreditation and its potential to become the 4G/LTE Telecommunications Radio Center-of-Excellence in the region, NetworkLabs is expecting to promote and strengthen the Philippine IT sector by taking the lead and making a significant investment in the country.
"By spearheading this effort, NetworksLabs will encourage other companies to bring their R&D more to the Philippines. The company will be the pioneer in a Silicon-Valley like environment where IT incubation start-up companies provide new and innovative software solutions. This will help strengthen the Philippine IT and telecommunications industry," Castro said.
NetworksLabs has attracted hundreds of software engineers from the industry and from the top colleges and universities. To achieve sustainable quality recruitment, the Center is in the process of creating symbiotic partnerships with the academe.
Castro said the company's priority is to shape and influence the curricula of the schools to make them relevant for the industry and tomorrow's needs. An Honor Roll program is currently being planned to form a class of top junior students from major universities to ensure closer relationships between future engineers and NetworkLabs.
NetworkLabs is directly involved in research work and software development for 3G and 4G radio communication networks for NSN.
"The establishment of NetworkLabs will further enhance the presence of NSN in the Philippines and heighten the company's thrust to solve the 4G challenge," Ashish Chowdhary, head of Customer Operations East of NSN said.
With more than 65,000 people in over 150 countries, NSN is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and services companies in the world.
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