Microsoft is expected to introduce an array of new products in coming months as it would allocate US$9.5 billion in research and development this fiscal year, said Ya-Qin Zhang, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President at the sideline of 2009 Summer Davos forum.

The new products would include the Window 7, the latest version of Microsoft Windows operating system, new Office Software, new servers and new mobile technology, Zhang told Xinhua Thursday.

"Against the backdrop of global economic downturn, Microsoft planned to allocate US$9.5 billion in research and development, an increase of 15 percent from the previous fiscal year," he said at the sideline of the meeting, also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009, in China's port city Dalian, northeast Liaoning Province.

"We are preparing for a fast development after the financial crisis," said Zhang, noting that Microsoft's research team in China, with about 3,000 employees, had contributed to a large number of the core technology in the new products.

"To my understanding, China and India have become the major innovation center for the world," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2009)