Hewlett-Packard plans to increase investment in RI

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

American information technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP), which hit headlines globally in the middle of this year with its megamerger with Compaq, is planning to increase its investment in Indonesia, saying the market is still growing here.

"We have several plans to increase our investment in the future, among others things is increasing the number of employees and infrastructure in Indonesia," Elisa Lumbantoruan, the new president director of HP Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"Indonesia is among the few countries who granted permission to increase human resources after the merger," he said, declining to reveal the investment value in Indonesia.

At present, HP employs 267 people in Indonesia.

The merger has placed HP as the largest international brand computer vendor in Indonesia.

Elisa said HP's business strategy in Indonesia would be increasing accessibility for both HP and Compaq consumers to the company's new products and services as well as increasing spending on educating and developing the market.

Hewlett Packard and Compaq clinched a mega-merger deal worth US$25.2 billion in May after an almost year-long battle with HP shareholders.

While, initially, there were fears that consumers might be confused about products released by HP and were thus reluctant to buy them, Elisa said that such problems did not occur in Indonesia.

"We help customers in their transition to products from the New HP, especially for sunset products from HP," he said, adding that the process had been completed in first quarter period after the merger.

Meanwhile, BT Lim, the outgoing HP president director who was in charge of the merger process in Indonesia, said the process had run relatively smoothly.

According to BT Lim, in the first quarter period after the merger, HP Indonesia managed to excel from its counterparts in Asia-Pacific in terms of revenue. He did not provide any figures.

It brushed aside concerns from analysts in the IT industry that a merger would not work out.

"This has proven that a merger will not always bring failure," he said.