Recruiting in China

BOAO, CHINA (Dow Jones)--Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International, one of the world's big four accounting firms, will put an additional $100 million in China in the coming years to support its business and staff expansion in one of the world's fastest-growing markets, the company's chief executive said over the weekend.

China is Deloitte's fourth-largest market in terms of employees, with more than 8,000 people in 13 cities across mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Its business includes auditing financial results of companies, helping companies to prepare tax returns, and consulting.

"Deloitte is committed to China. An 8% growth rate and the prospect of sustaining superior growth going forward makes it an attractive place for a professional services firm to want to be," CEO James Quigley said on the sidelines of annual Boao Forum, a gathering of government and business leaders on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

"When I have made my investment decisions as the CEO of Deloitte, the market where we are investing the most is in China," he added.

In 2004, Deloitte announced a $150 million investment for its China business over five years, with the lion's share of the money having gone toward recruiting and retaining staff.

"We've now expanded. So another $100 million is coming this direction as we continue to want to grow our business here, and take advantage of the opportunities available to serve China companies and to serve companies outside of China who want to invest here," said Quigley.

He added the $100 million would be invested over three to five years.

Christopher Lu, Deloitte chief executive officer for China, said the company will continue to hire between 1,000 and 2,000 workers in China annually as part of its expansion.

"If you look at complex transactions, for instance, derivatives and others, you need to have experts that truly understand these areas," he said. "We spend a tremendous amount of our annual operation funds in training and developing people."

In June, Deloitte will set up a team in Hong Kong of senior managers from 16 countries to help Chinese companies with tax services for international investments.

Deloitte's main target clients in China are large state-owned enterprises, private companies, multinational corporations and high-potential rapid growth enterprises, particularly in the technology sector.

-Rose Yu contributed to this article, Dow Jones Newswires; 8621 6120-1200; rose.yu@dowjones.com