EMC's business in Russia grew 50 percent in 2006 -- four times more than on average in other countries, Luc Brunet, general manager of EMC Russia/CIS/Baltics, said.

The company is planning a mass hiring outside the US in the nearest future. It intends to expand divisions dealing with localization and sales of developed solutions and customer service in countries with the biggest growth potential, including Russia. New regional representative offices are to appear. Inside the CIS area new offices will be opened in Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg and Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan in 2007. At the time being, EMC's rep offices operating in the post-Soviet territory are situated in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kiev, Ukraine.

The staff of overseas software development centers, which are located in China, Belgium, India, Ireland and Israel, will be rapidly expanded. In the beginning of this year recruitment of developers also started in Russia.

Rona Newmark, senior vice president of EMC Excellence Center design and commissioning, says that the corporation is becoming global rather than American. The amount of money it is investing in the Saint Petersburg center must prove that it views Russia not only as a marketing outlet 'but as one of the most promising areas from the perspective of business globalization', she said.

Russia will receive just approximately 10 percent of the US$1 billion the corporation is going to have invested into business expansion in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) by 2010.