GERMANY'S SAP AG will invest US$2 billion in China through 2015 to tap the growing demand for enterprise management services, a company executive said.

The software giant will invest the money over the next five years in hiring employees and new research and development in services and products to support its business growth in China, Bill McDermott, co-chief executive officer of SAP, said in a statement yesterday.

"SAP will hire 2,000 new staff to double our workforce in the next three years in order to serve the growing customer base in China," said McDermott when he unveiled the investment plans during SAPPHIRE NOW, a technology and convention hosted by SAP for customers and partners in Beijing yesterday.

SAP, the world's biggest enterprise software vendor, also has plans to open five or six new offices in China as well as strengthen alliances with universities to customize services and bring closer support to domestic customers.

The German software giant seeks to expand into new business sectors, including cloud computing, in-memory computing and mobile applications.

"The cloud technology will revolutionize computing around the world," McDermott said.

SAP has acquired mobility business solution provider Sybase and business analytics solution vendor Business Objects over the past few years and aims to achieve 20 billion euros (US$35 billion) in sales by 2015.

In the third quarter, SAP's revenue in Asia-Pacific and Japan totalled 525 million euros, contributing 15 percent to the company's global income of 3.41 billion euros.