Hikvision Corporate recently announced a $1.49 billion investment plan to construct four new R&D centers and two new industrial bases to expand surveillance equipment manufacturing and general R&D in various Chinese cities.

As security concerns and cybersecurity risks increase worldwide, Hikvision anticipates demand for its conventional security business will continue to grow steadily.

Alex Asnovich, head of marketing, Hikvision North America, said Hikvision has historically reinvested 7- 8 percent of its revenues to R&D. “This commitment to innovation is at the core of our success as a company,” Asnovich said. “This most recent announcement is terrific news for North American integrators. New facilities in China will work in concert with new R&D facilities opened in North America this year.”

Earlier this year Hikvision announced the opening of the Montreal R&D Centre and a research institute in the Silicon Valley. “These are the first R&D facilities located outside of China,” Asnovich said. “More R&D directly translates into more innovation, more enterprise-level solutions that can be tailored to the needs of different regions, including North America, and the ability to quickly provide products to regions around the world. We want Hikvision integrator partners to win projects and grow their businesses. Our R&D commitment and world-class manufacturing enable us to do that.”

Hikvision will use accumulated profits to fund the project and may seek additional financing methods from traditional sources such as loans, the company said in a blog post. Hikvision’s fixed asset ratios will remain low and operational cash flow will continue to be robust, it reported.

“These new China-based facilities show Hikvision’s commitment to R&D in the traditional surveillance industry, while expanding our technology innovations in IoT, smart home, industrial automation, automotive electronics, smart cities and more,” said Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision USA Inc., and Hikvision Canada Inc.  

Hikvision’s new R&D Centers will be constructed in the Chinese cities of Xi’an, Wuhan, Chengdu and Hangzhou. Industrial bases planned for the Chinese cities of Chongqing and Wuhan will improve Hikvision’s manufacturing capacity and production scale for security and innovative new technologies.

Hikvision’s planned investment project is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.