The IT and business software titan plans to unveil two new business groups -- one Wednesday in Beijing and the other Thursday in Shanghai, as part of its strategy to cater to the growing number of small and medium enterprises in China.

The research and development centre in the capital will "focus on developing products and solutions for China's vast and growing market," it said in a statement.

On Thursday it will open a business unit to exclusively support the needs of Japanese owned companies that are rapidly expanding and require integrated IT systems.

"With Oracle's large customer base in Japan, including 600 customers of Oracle's applications software alone -- many of whom have already established a base in China, there is a significant opportunity for use to better support our customers," said Oracle Japan president and CEO Masaaki Shintaku.

Both operations opened their doors in June, but Oracle delayed an official announcement due to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The research and development in Beijing adds to the existing one in the southern city of Shenzhen, which was opened in June 2002 to serve the host of small and medium sized companies there.

Oracle recently refocused its China operations on specific sectors such as telecommunications, government, and financial services, the company said.

Oracle, a specialist in database software for the Internet and e-commerce, calls itself the world's largest enterprise software company. It has the biggest market share in database software in the Asia Pacific.

Its first quarter results rose 28 percent from a year ago to 440 million US dollars, with Asia Pacific and Japan contributing 14 percent of total revenue.

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