Motorola opens R&D center in Beijing

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- Electronic News, 11/8/2007

Motorola Inc. today announced the inauguration of its R&D complex in Wangjing, Beijing, a 92,000-sq.-meter complex that consists of one 16-floor office tower, three low-rise R&D buildings and one lab building, and will accommodate more than 3,000 Motorola employees, including 2,000 R&D engineers.

The complex was built in collaboration with the Chaoyang District Government of Beijing, and Zhongguancun Electronic Zone Construction Co., and started construction in March 2005.

"China has always been a very important part of our company's strategy and it continues to be,” Greg Brown, president and COO of Motorola, said in a statement. “The inauguration of Motorola China R&D Complex will make the company better positioned to drive development of China's wireless industry and to achieve win-win results with local customers, consumers and partners."

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola has had a presence in China for 20 years and has invested $800 million in China R&D, building R&D centers and labs in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, and Hangzhou, and employing more than 3,000 R&D staff. The company said its mobile device China design center, global software group China center, and home and networks mobility China GSM/UMTS R&D team R&D institutes will move into the newly constructed complex in Wangjing. Other major labs and R&D centers that have settled down in this new location include Motorola’s Beijing compliance lab, global telecom solutions sector China design center, customer network resolution center, Motorola engineering institute, and antenna and EMI labs.

Of course, Motorola is not alone in its interest in the China market. Westborough, Mass.-based energy technologies company American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) in late October became the latest in a long line of tech firms branching out to China, forming a new division to serve the wind energy, power grid and industrial markets in China. Also in late October, Singapore-based semiconductor test and packaging service provider STATS ChipPAC Ltd. announced the grand opening of a second 371,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Shanghai, and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. announced the opening of a new design center in Chengdu that will focus on 3G TD-SCDMA mobile technology.