The company conducted a mobile search late last year and studied location possibilities in Hong Kong, Sydney and Japan before deciding to locate in the South-East Asian island state.

Tom DeLuca, Vice-President of strategic planning says: "Singapore is the leading Asian offshore location and is the region's e-commerce hub." He adds: "The idea was that 4 or 5 markets in the region deserved offices, but we thought it would be better to get on the ground and build local offices from a hub location."

The company was particularly impressed by Singaporean efforts to nurture the knowledge-based economy with initiatives such as the industry's 21 initiative. The government has put into place legislation dealing with issues such as data privacy and electronic signature. It also provides a favourable tax environment for e-commerce companies and the country has the benefit of offering the company a business environment where English is widely spoken.

Planet Payment has already employed 5 people and plans to hire 15 more by the end of 2000.

Staffing the offices has not been a problem. In fact, DeLuca says: "We have had a hard time choosing candidates since Singapore has a large population of well-educated, internationally focused and financially sophisticated people."

The company, which provides credit card and multi-currency technology solutions for e-commerce merchants, plans to open country offices in its target markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.

DeLuca says that the company's expansion drive will not stop with the Singapore office. UK headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland, a Miami HQ for the Latin American region, and a Toronto HQ for Canada will be launched in the coming weeks.