Cisco Systems Co Ltd (Cisco), the US-based global networking giant, is pinning high hopes on the fledgling Chinese market and will strengthen its local presence by enhancing its research and development (R&D) capabilities and by looking for more merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities.

"We haven't published our latest quarter fiscal report yet, but China is already the largest operation within Asia-Pacific, if not accounting Japan. We are very pleased with our business here,'' Gordan Astles, president of Cisco's Asia-Pacific operations, told China Daily recently.

Although China is a very price-sensitive market, Cisco's high-end switches and router products, according to the latest market report by International Data Corp, are holding over 60 per cent of the market.

And Astles said the company has more measures to further expand its Chinese presence.

Cisco's true strength in China, according to Astles, is in its manufacturing, where an undisclosed but significant amount of its worldwide production is handled locally by contracted manufacturers.

Cisco is also always looking for further R&D opportunities and the networking firm has partnered with companies through a programme known as the Networking Application Development Centre.

"We would see this programme expand significantly in China in the future,'' Astles stressed.

And the company is also looking for further M&A opportunities, something it has been seeking for the past six months.

But it is not Cisco's practice to buy competitors, rather it buys technology to add more value to what it already owns, Astles added.

"Rather than buying a competitor which, in some countries, is actually illegal because it creates a monopoly, we make sure that our primary strategy is to add functionality to our technology and products,'' he said.

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