Thiruvananthapuram, April 18 (IANS) IT blue chip Oracle Monday signed an agreement to open its first office in Kerala at the Technopark campus here, officials said.

 
 Its office will be housed at the Leela Infopark building.
 
 The agreement was signed in the presence of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan by Oracle official R. Jayaraman and Venu Krishnan of Leela Infotech.
 
 Jayaraman told Achuthanandan that the company was looking forward to the commencement of its Kerala operations.
 
 Achuthanandan said he was happy that one of the world's leading IT firms was setting up a unit in the state.
 
 "The agreement starts from today and it runs for nine years...the present space can accommodate close to 400 professionals," Krishnan told reporters.
 
 Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Oracle Corporation specialises in developing and marketing enterprise software products - particularly database management systems.
 
 As of July 2010, the firm employed more than one lakh professionals across the globe.
 
 Leela Infotech has built up space at the Technopark and Kochi Infopark campuses and is the largest private infrastructure builder in the state with over 1.7 million sq ft of space.
 
 The Technopark campus houses more than 200 companies that employ over 30,000 professionals.