New Delhi, Sept. 5: Here's some good news. Corporate India is likely to witness the highest salary increase in the entire Asia Pacific region in 2005-06, says Hewitt Associates.

In a preliminary study, Hewitt, a global human resource services firm, has ranked India first among all countries in the region in terms of pay hikes likely to be awarded to an average employee this fiscal.

Hewitt says employees in India are likely to witness an annual salary hike of about 14 per cent. The final figures for this year covering 1,000 companies across the sectors will be released next month.

'Business and human resources professionals across Asia continue to look for meaningful ways of managing rapid business growth amidst high attrition and challenges in attracting and retaining talent,' said Nishchae Suri, rewards consulting leader for Hewitt Associates in Asia.

'Organisations are further strengthening their reward management practices and focusing on pay for performance to enhance overall productivity,' he added.

According to Hewitt Associates, India is already seeing a growth in this trend for the last few years. Previous studies show the average salary hike in India ranged between 9.1-14.9 per cent in 2004-05.

In 2003-04, the salary hikes ranged between 9.5-12.6 per cent across employee groups, while in 2002-03, it was between 8.5-11.4 per cent.

This year, India is followed by China and the Philippines, with an 8.1 per cent increase in the pay packages. Next in line is Korea with a 7.1 per cent increase, while Thailand is likely to witness a hike of 6.5 per cent. However, Japan is likely to report the lowest increase of 2.8 per cent in pay hikes.

As organisations attempt to become global and capture larger customer bases around the world, India and China continue to be strong favourites, the study said. It is expected that these countries will continue to do well and significantly influence economic growth in the region.

'Given the global attention, salary increases in these markets are expected to be among the highest in the region,' said Suri.

The survey measures actual and projected salary increases and compensation practices for specific job categories, namely senior or top management, manager, professional, supervisor, technical, clerical or support, and manual workers.

Human resource function analysts say that infotech, business process outsourcing and financial services are among the highest salary growth areas worldwide.