Oracle Corporation, the world's second largest software company, has put India high on its agenda.

It expects India to be amongst the two fastest growing markets in the Asia-Pacific region in the next two years.

Keith Budge, regional managing director, South Asia region, Oracle Corporation, said: "We are looking at various ways to strengthen our position in India as it is one of our key markets. We expect it to be one of the two prime markets for us, besides China."

India is Oracle's fifth-largest market in Asia in terms of revenue, up from tenth two years ago. He said the company has continued to gain business in the region in financial year 2003.

"While FY2003 was a challenging business year, given the tough economic conditions, we still managed to deliver good results in the Asia-Pacific. We expect the year 2004 to be better for us," he said.

Moving forward, Oracle will focus on key industry verticals such as financial services, the public sector and government, telecommunications, and manufacturing. "We are finalising out strategies for these sectors," Budge said.

Oracle, which has been operating in India for more than 15 years now, also plans to increase the number of employees in the country from 3100 to 4000 by the end of the current year.

The Indian software and services operations of the company, which is Oracle's largest research and development investment outside the United States, will also be given more development work.

"The Indian centres are contributing to the development of almost all Oracle products and this trend will increase," he said.

The company is also planning a new development facility in Hyderabad for which it has bought land recently.