On November 22, Unilever announced that its Shanghai Research & Development (R&D) Laboratory will undergo a major expansion to become the R&D base for the global market. The major research area will be home and personal care products.

Uniliver is one of a number of large transnational corporations to set up a global R&D base in China. AMD, Intel, Siemens and Novartis have made similar moves. Some specialists predict that this is a growing trend.

There are already more than 700 R&D centers in China set up by transnational corporations; most of them focus on the Chinese market, but many are beginning to grow into region and global bases. Some time before the end of the year, the global R&D center of American company AMD in Shanghai will become operational.

By People's Daily Online