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gilent Technologies, the world’s number one integrated technologies firm in measurement products and services, says it is mulling setting up an office in Indonesia to tap the growing market in Southeast Asia.

Gooi Soon Chai, the president of Agilent Technologies Malaysia and Singapore, said he considered Indonesia to be one of the biggest potential markets for business along with Russia, Brazil and Vietnam as demand for technology had significantly grown.

“Indonesia is fast becoming one of the most important emerging economies ... we will continue to focus more on the country,” he told journalists at Agilent’s media round-table at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s economy grew 6.1 percent pace last year backed by strong domestic consumption as purchasing power rose, and expanding the middle class’ tertiary needs for technologies like smartphones.

Agilent’s vice president for electronics measurement sales in Asia Pacific, Dennis Au, said despite a long-lasting partnership with the Indonesian government and firms that dated back to the 1970s, Agilent did not have a direct presence in the biggest economy in Southeast Asia.

“There’s a possibility to open an office in Indonesia, to have a direct presence, but we can’t say if it will be done in the next one or two years,” Au added.

Within the Southeast Asia region, Agilent currently has offices in Malaysia and Singapore. According to Malaysian Business Times, the firm’s accumulated investment in Agilent Technologies Malaysia Sdn Bhd reached 3.6 billion ringgit (about US$1.2 billion) from 1972 to 2003 with a manufacturing space at the Bayan Lepas free industrial zone in Penang of 111,480 square meter.

United States-based Agilent, publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is the biggest technology firm in the world, which measures almost everything under the sun from air to food and telecommunication tools and drugs. More than
50 percent of telephones produced in the world are tested with Agilent’s equipment.

The firm operates three core businesses: electronic measurement (aerospace, defense, computer), chemical analysis (petrochemical, food testing, environment, forensics) and life sciences (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academics, government).

Teng Chai Hock, vice president and general manager of the chemical analysis group in South Asia Pacific and Korea, said “Agilent has presence in all industries in Indonesia which need measurement, but it was little known,” citing a 30-year partnership with the country’s technology giant Berca Hardayaperkasa.

Agilent’s customers in Indonesia include hundreds of business giants in tobacco, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, food, like Indofood Sukses Makmur, Gudang Garam, Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, as well as the government and all universities in the country.

Food and chemical testing are the biggest sectors for Agilent’s business in Indonesia, the executives said. In Asia Pacific, electronices measurement is the biggest business compared with the other two divisions of chemical analysis and life science, with a share of 42 percent versus 39 percent in the Americas and 19 percent in Europe.

Across the globe, Agilent’s share is highest in Asia Pacific (37 percent) and the Americas (37 percent), while Europe accounts for 26 percent of its sales.

In the first quarter ended Jan. 31, Agilent booked $193 million net profits as revenue increased 25 percent compared with a year earlier to $1.52 billion. The firm posted $5.5 billion in revenues in 2010.

Agilent’s 18,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries.