Microsoft to up its China manpower by 33%

BEIJING: Microsoft Corp said that it would hire 1,000 engineers in the current fiscal year, joining the current 5,000 staff in China, highest number outside the US.

"We will add 1,000 engineers," Zhang Yaqin, the company's chairman in the mainland, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. "There will be researchers, but most will be involved with product," he said, without elaborating.

The comments come after Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said earlier this month that the Chinese market was important to Microsoft but Beijing needed to do more to protect intellectual property rights.

The company has research centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. In April this year, the company formed a center with Lenovo Group to help develop new computers and handheld electronics.

Microsoft has said more than a fifth of its software running globally was pirated.