ASCENDAS, a leading business space services provider in Asia, said yesterday it plans to invest as much as S$700 million (US$460.15 million) to develop its fourth information-technology park on the Chinese mainland.

The new facility will be in Hangzhou in neighboring Zhejiang Province and follow other sites in Xi'an, Dalian and Nanjing, in a move to further extend the company's footprint in the country.

The Singapore-Hangzhou Science and Technology Park, located in the Xiasha satellite town and spanning 430,000 square meters, is expected to host several hundred IT companies and 30,000 to 50,000 industry professionals when it's finished in five to eight years, according to the Singapore-based company.

A joint project with the Hangzhou Economic Development Area Administration, the park aims to serve as a hub for business process outsourcing, information technology outsourcing and research and development.

The project's first phase, which covers 40,000 square meters, will be completed by the end of next year.

"Service outsourcing is a rapidly emerging industry in Asia, and the total size of China's service outsourcing industry is estimated to hit US$3.1 billion in 2007, year-on-year growth of 29 percent," said Chong Siak Ching, president and chief executive officer of Ascendas. "Like our involvement elsewhere in Asia, our Hangzhou park reiterates our long-term commitment to further driving the industry here by working closely with the Chinese government."

Ascendas said in March that it plans to more than triple its investment in China within the next five years, with total investment reaching S$2.5 billion.

Entering the Chinese market in 1995 by pioneering ready-built facilities in the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, the Singapore company now runs operations in 10 cities across the country, mainly in the east and north.