August 17, 2007 – Renesas Technology Corp. and NEC Electronics Corp. plan to increase their sales and technology support staff in China in order to build ties with local design houses making chip modules, and thus increase the share of business from domestic companies, according to the Nikkei Business Daily.

Renesas, which opened its ninth Chinese sales office earlier this month, plans to increase its marketing and technology support workforce by about 12% (to 450 employees) by the end of fiscal 2008. Chinese businesses represented about 40% of the chipmaker’s 60 billion yen in FY06 sales in China (the rest went to Japanese, US, and European customers), but the company wants to increase that to 60% of its projected 120B yen sales in China by 2010, the paper notes.

NEC, meanwhile, is adding another two marketing offices in China by year’s end (to six total), and also aims to double its sales and technology support personnel in China by fiscal 2010 to about 400 workers, the paper noted.