Siemens plans expansion in China and India

German electronics and engineering firm Siemens is to hire IT professionals from China, India and Eastern Europe without axing jobs in Western Europe and the US.

The company said it has no plans to shift programming or other IT jobs from its traditional markets to budding new markets, but aims to hire locally and elsewhere to expand operations.

Siemens said it had recognised a need to move a chunk of its software-development activity from high-cost countries to low-cost countries.

More than 15,000 jobs were rumoured to move from Western Europe and the US to China, India and Eastern Europe.

A Siemens spokeswoman declined to say how many staff will be hired in developing markets, and denied that the expansion would result in fewer developers' jobs in the US and Western Europe.