Center

MCC seeks to boost its R&D spending

By Mai Dou (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-16 09:14

China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), one of the nation's flagship enterprises in tapping resources, is scaling up research and development (R&D) spending to sharpen global competence and help reach its 2010 development ambitions.

Within the next four years, R&D investment should account for 6 per cent of the total revenue at its research institutes, 4 per cent at its design units and 2 per cent at its construction subsidiaries, according to MCC Chairman Yang Changheng.

"We will build MCC into an innovation-oriented enterprise in three years and a world-class conglomerate with cutting-edge technologies and internationally competitive research and development strength," Yang told a company conference in Beijing on Friday.

A major criterion for defining an innovation-oriented company is the percentage of R&D spending in the annual sales revenue, which should amount to at least 5 per cent, Yang said. For MCC, the current figure stands at only 1.5 per cent.

The intensified efforts to boost R&D expertise highlight the company's ambitious goal of becoming one of the world's top 500 enterprises by the year 2010.

MCC group, which boasts a growing overseas portfolio, aims to hit revenue of more than 130 billion yuan (US$16.3 billion) within the next four years. Its revenue reached 69.1 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) in 2005, with profit amounting to US$1.5 billion yuan (US$187.5 million).