Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services plans to recruit fresh graduates from local universities outside India, in its first management graduates hiring programme abroad, to spur its fast-growing software and outsourcing activities in South East Asia and China.

Satyam, which has its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore, said it would hire the first batch of five to six local graduates - Singapore citizens or permanent residents - under Singapore's ministry of trade and industry's Asian Business Fellowship programme.

Under the programme, the Singapore government will subsidise the cost of training for a specified period before the graduates are deployed in India, China and Singapore. The graduates will be drawn from the IT, business development and marketing courses.

The Singapore graduates will join approximately 100 fresh graduates in India in a management graduate's programme to be conducted at the Satyam Technology Centre in Hyderabad .

Hari Thalapalli, senior vice-president, human resources, Satyam, said, "Satyam is transforming itself rapidly, beyond being an Indian IT services provider, into a global company. To cater to the increasingly diversified clientele, we need to inject fresh talent from various cultures. Singapore, being a multi-cultural metropolis and our regional headquarters, is a good place to begin this search for talent. "

According to him the management graduates will focus less on IT and software and more on marketing-related skills, including pre-sales, marketing, business analysis and client interface. Singaporeans, with their multicultural background and language skills, can play such roles skilfully in South East Asia and China and help Satyam move up the value chain he said.

"Singapore plays an important role for Satyam globally, not just in terms of being the regional headquarters and the business continuity centre. We see Singapore as an effective business partner to grow the outsourcing business further because of its excellent infrastructure, legal framework and strong government support for the IT services sector," said Virender Aggarwal, director and senior vice president and head of Satyam's APAC operations.

Satyam Computer Services was recently included among the top 10 "best companies to work for in India" in an industry survey conducted by Business Today and Mercer-TNS.

Satyam has been expanding its global presence to not only offer clients it's near shore presence but also enhanced global delivery capabilities. After launching operations in Hungary and Brazil, Satyam is preparing to actively engage in Europe and Latin America. The company has also been expanding its base in the US, Canada and Australia. In India Satyam has strengthened its operations in Bhubaneshwar , Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.