Matsushita Shifts More Research and Development to China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 28, 2002

Matsushita Shifts More Research and Development to China

Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said Friday it had established US$6 research and development unit in China to design consumer electronics goods more suited to the local market.

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Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said Friday it had established US$6 research and development unit in China to design consumer electronics goods more suited to the local market.

The loss-making firm, better known through its Panasonic and National brands, will also increase the number of Chinese engineers to 1,750 from 110 by March 2006.

Matsushita previously developed products for the Chinese market in Japan but hopes to conduct all such work in China to ensure goods are better suited to local customers.

"Our basic policy is to establish (the product) from scratch at the place where the final product is being used," said company spokesman Yasuhiro Fukagawa.

"The way home appliances are used differs from country-to-country, from race-to-race. Cultures are different and lifestyles are different... we believe it is better to make the R and D there than make guess work in Japan."

Matsushita's new outlet in Jiangsu Province, which opened on Tuesday, will develop air-conditioners and lighting sources for home electronics, before gradually expanding to refrigerators and washing machines.

It joins a second branch in Beijing set up in January 2001 to devise software for mobile phones.

Fifty Chinese engineers work at Matsushita Research and Development (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., and will rise to 250 by March 2006. Engineers at the Beijing unit will increase to 1,500 from 60 over the same period.

Matsushita operates 48 companies and factories in China and employs over 41,000 people there.

In February, the firm forecast its largest ever full-year net loss of 438 billion yen (US$3.3 billion) for the year to March 2002, up 65 percent from an earlier estimate of 265 billion yen, on slack demand for technology.

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