BEIJING, Mar 30, 2006 (SinoCast via COMTEX) -- Germany-headquartered software giant SAP announced the official commissioning of the new buildings of its China operation located in the Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Pudong New Area of eastern Shanghai city on March 28.

Meanwhile, SAP expressed that it will increase its R&D staff in Shanghai to 1,500 people by 2008 from current 500 ones.

After some ten years of development, SAP Labs China has now grown to be the fifth largest SAP Labs across the world, following Labs in Germany, India, the US and Israel, said a senior SAP director.

In the past nine years, SAP has kept a comprehensive growth of 70% annually in China and becomes one of the most profitable foreign companies in China.

Founded in 1972, SAP is the world's third-largest independent software provider and is the largest business software company.

SAP Labs China was officially established in November 2003 while has started development early from 1997.