China has already become the second largest devotee to R&D, and the most attractive R&D investment locale in the world, lagging only behind the U.S. In the 2005 to 2009 investment plan, approximately 61.8% of multinationals will have China as their top choice country for R&D investment. China’s development in this area is reflected by Bill Gates’ frequent remark that MSRA has been one of his best investments. In 2007, Microsoft’s strong release of 2007 Microsoft Office System, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 are evidence of China’s innovative intelligence.

Assistant Managing Director Jian Wang of MSRA once proudly stated that he was told by a U.S. co-worker that they cooperated more with MSRA than with local American research institutes, and that MSRA had closer contact with Bill Gates than they did. Wang also discloses that funding for research is essentially limitless, the only risk being the researchers’ time and energy. He believes that research funds are meant to be “wasted,” because only through an open and tolerant spirit can successful products and technology be achieved. Wang notes Gates’ personal involvement in their research and development, something to be regarded highly because of Gates’ greatly esteemed name.

Nowadays multinationals are all well aware of China’s huge amount of talents. MSRA, for example, are targeting young talents, and have held an internship program directed at them for seven years now. The program includes a trip to Bill Gates’ house for the 10 most outstanding interns, something very appealing to many young talents. Managing Director Harry Shum of MSRA indicated that in the past four years, he has been trying to create a positive environment for attracting talents. He believes that innovations arise from the interactions between many intelligent minds.