Six years ago, Bill Gates said mysteriously during an internal meeting, "we have an excellent research institute overseas. Do you know where it is? It is in China."

The research institute being praised was Microsoft China Research, established in Beijing in 1998 with US million of investment. Gates' praise was actually a warm-up for his next action. Several days later, Microsoft China Research was renamed "Microsoft Asia Research," and became one of Microsoft's five global base research institutes. These five base research institutes are at the root of Microsoft's achievements. Three of them are located in the U., and the fifth is in Cambridge, UK.

Microsoft's global research institutes have a total staff of 700, with 170 at Asia Research. So far, they have published over 1,000 research papers. In only a few years, two global senior vice-presidents emerged from Microsoft's Beijing research institute. They now work in Microsoft's US headquarters.

In fact, Microsoft already has five Chinese institutes covering the areas of scientific research, product development and technical support service. Microsoft Asia Research, Microsoft Advanced Technology Center, Microsoft (China) Research & Development Center, Microsoft (China) Global Technical Support Center, and China Technology Center, are mostly located in Beijing.

(Chinanews April 19, 2005)