Research & Development (R&D) Budgets Set to Grow With China the Biggest Recipient, New Research for Thomson Reveals

Research & Development (R&D) Budgets Set to Grow With China the Biggest Recipient, New Research for Thomson Reveals

May 18, 2006

    BEIJING, May 18 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Two thirds of
Asian executives are set to boost R&D budgets over the
next three years to reflect the critical importance of
innovation to maintaining a competitive advantage,
according to an executive survey conducted by Economist
Intelligence Unit for Thomson Scientific.

    The findings, which were revealed at the "Think
Smart R&D and Innovation Roundtable" held in
Beijing today, state the country most expected to benefit
from this investment is China, with 48.15% of companies
stating it will have the biggest share of its R&D
spend, ahead of India (24.07%), US (21.69%) and Europe
(20.99%).  Up to 40% of respondents cited the Chinese
Government's active support for R&D as China's greatest
asset. The survey polled 165 senior executives in
Asia-Pacific (including 37% from China) and was conducted
in April-May 2006. 

    Thomson Scientific - part of the Thomson Corporation, a
leading provider of integrated information based solutions -
has developed a number of innovation lead initiatives to
assist R&D teams at universities and Chinese and
foreign enterprises to gain competitive advantage through a
better understanding and usage of Intellectual Property
data.

    The survey reveals that over a quarter of respondents
view international companies as more competitive than their
own organization, while only 6.75% view Chinese companies as
more competitive. However, Thomson statistics for patent
registration indicate this is set to change. Latest figures
reveal that the number of applications by Chinese nationals
has nearly tripled from 2000 to 2004.

    Vin Caraher, President and CEO of Thomson Scientific
explains:

    "It is clear that China is rapidly shifting from a
low cost manufacturing base to a low cost innovation base,
where complex R&D processes, experimentation and
exploration are conducted.  As this shift occurs, the role
of Intellectual Property for Chinese enterprises will
become more important as companies use Intellectual
Property data to leverage a competitive advantage."

    Thomson, which has over 30 years expertise in China, is
well placed to assist Chinese companies to innovate faster
and with higher frequency by providing authoritative and
reliable patent data. Thomson Scientific produces Derwent
World Patents Index (DWPI), the world's largest commercial
collection of patent data. Its team assesses, classifies,
summarizes and indexes in excess of 39,000 patent documents
each week from 42 international patent offices. In addition,
Thomson has 900 databases (with six billion pages of
content) from the most authoritative authors, as well as
the analytical software solutions to help academics and
business professionals uncover trends, profile competitors
and identify strategic development opportunities.

    As part of Thomson's support for global innovation, the
company partnered with the State Intellectual Property
Office (SIPO) in China to launch an IP Knowledge Contest
with SIPO's China Intellectual Property News (CIPN), with
the aim of gauging the professional and academic public's
understanding of Intellectual Property.  Questions vary
from piracy restrictions to time limits for the protection
of an invention, with results due later in 2006.

    In addition, in 2005, the company worked with the
Ministry of Information Industry (MII) to develop the
Thomson Joint Laboratory for Intellectual Property
Development, which provides Chinese citizens access to its
patent databases through the lab facility.

    Thomson's latest venture, which launched on 3 May, is a
dedicated website for China innovation
http://www.innovationinchina.com .

    About the Thomson Corporation

    The Thomson Corporation ( http://www.thomson.com ),
with 2005 revenues of $8.7 billion, is a global leader in
providing integrated information solutions to business and
professional customers.  Thomson provides value-added
information, software tools and applications to more than
20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting,
financial services, higher education, reference
information, corporate e-learning and assessment,
scientific research and healthcare. With operational
headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately
40,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130
countries. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the
New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX).

    Thomson Scientific is a business of The Thomson
Corporation.  Its information solutions assist
professionals at every stage of research and
development-from discovery to analysis to product
development and distribution. Thomson scientific
information solutions can be found at
http://www.scientific.thomson.com .

    For more information, please contact:

     Lucy Liu 
     Thomson Scientific
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Allison Wright 
     Grayling China
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Thomson Scientific