Global R&D centers

Goertek is taking measures to boost its research and development capacity and to keep it one step ahead of its competitors.

In the first quarter of 2017, Goertek's R&D expenditure reached 379 million yuan ($56.4 million), accounting for 8.36 percent of its overall quarterly income.

The figures provided by Goertek show that the company's overall turnover reached 4.53 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 68.33 percent year-on-year.

Apart from establishing R&D centers in China, Goertek also invested heavily on building up R&D centers in developed countries such as the United States, South Korea and Japan. Every R&D center has its unique advantages and is serving different business units in Goertek. For instance, the R&D center in Japan focuses on the acoustics and materials fields. The one in Taiwan focuses on application-specific integrated circuits, micro-electro-mechanical systems and optics. The one in Beijing has an emphasis on acoustics, algorithms and software.

Goertek also strengthened its partnerships with leading domestic and overseas institutes and universities to support its talent pool expansion and core technology development.

On July 21, the company signed an agreement with the Beihang University and Weifang government to build a research institute in Weifang to promote robotic and smart technologies development.

"The institute will support China's smart technology industry development and strengthen Weifang's innovation capability," said Liu Shuguang, Party chief of Weifang. "It will help Weifang to accelerate steps in replacing old economic growth drivers with new ones."