Hewlett Packard Inc said Sunday it has established a service center in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

"We hope the center's establishment will support the region's information technology development," Sun Zhenyao, HP China's president, said in a statement. "We will also provide better after-sales service to our local customers."

The center, located in regional capital Lhasa, provides 24 hours' quick response service.

HP is one of the global IT giants, including Intel Corp and AsiaInfo Technologies Inc, to tap into China's undeveloped western region.

The US company set up a similar office in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, at the beginning of April. It will also establish a center in Qinghai Province in two months.

"With the economic development in the western region, we welcome IT companies to invest or find a foothold here," Tsering Dolkar, chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region, said at the opening ceremony of HP's center.

Separately, Nasdaq-listed AsiaInfo also said Sunday it had signed a deal with China Mobile Communication Corp's Tibet branch to provide a charging system for 450,000 China Mobile's users in the region.

Intel recently invested US$375 million to build a chip assembly and testing plant in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

(eastday.com May 10, 2004)