Business Alert - China
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Business Alert - China
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Multinational companies have stepped up their establishment of R&D centres in China following its entry into the WTO. According to MOFTEC statistics, the US, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia and other countries and regions have established over 100 R&D centres in China. Of these, about 30 are large establishments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Some of these are engaged in natural science research while others are involved in applied experiments and the commercialisation of R&D achievements in the computer, software, communications, petrochemical, automobile and pharmaceutical industries. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have become the bases for multinational R&D centres. And according to a MOFTEC official, the number of R&D institutions set up by multinationals in China will double in the next five years. There are three reasons why multinationals choose these three places as their R&D bases. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong are the bellwethers of the Bohai rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta economic belts respectively, and they all have an extensive hinterland in addition to their own vast market. In addition to having the richest scientific and technological resources in the country, they are also bases where multinationals have years of investment. However, multinationals are more inclined to establish R&D centres in Beijing and Shanghai. Guangdong is less well endowed than these two cities in scientific and technological personnel and basic scientific research investment. R&D centres established by multinational companies in Beijing include IBM (China) R&D Centre, Sun Microsystems' China Technical Development Centre, Nokia Research Centre, Panasonic (China)'s R&D Department, Microsoft Research China, Beijing P&G Technology Co, Fujitsu R&D Centre, Bell Laboratory, Motorola-Institute of Computer Joint Laboratory, Intel Research China, Delphi Institute of Car Systems, and Tsinghua University SMC Pneumatics Centre. In Shanghai, there are Bayer Shanghai Polymers Centre, Ericsson (Shanghai) Communications Software R&D Centre, Dupont Science and Technology, Microsoft Science and Technology, and Bell Laboratory. In Guangdong, there are Nortel R&D Centre, Guangzhou Honda Technology Centre, Compaq Shenzhen R&D Centre, and Lucent Science and Technology Shenzhen R&D Centre. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
