India's fourth-largest software enterprise, Satyam Computer Services Ltd., has announced it will create a branch company in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province.

Operating out of Nanjing Software Park in the city's New and High Technology Industry Development Zone, the software outsourcing firm will recruit 2,500 software engineers and should see annual sales increase by over 10 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion).

Qi Lu, an administrative official in the zone, on Sunday said that the new Satyam branch would both increase competitiveness among local software firms and serve to attract more Indian and other international software giants to Nanjing.

The campus-style park provides lodging and other amenities, and is set to attract over 300 software companies, Qi added.

V. Murali, Senior Vice President of Satyam Corporate Headquarters, said: "China is destined to become the world's No.2 outsourcing base, next only to India, and we are confident about the market there."

Nanjing Software Park, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology as a "Torch Plan" software industrial base, has so far met with encouraging success, attracting 240 software companies with over 13,000 workers.

Nanjing is Satyam's fifth foray in China, joining its branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Dalian.

In 2006, Satyam generated worldwide sales revenue of over US$1.5 billion from software and IT services.