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76 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2020 of Orbotech, we have gone through two cycles. Regardless of whether the economy is good or bad, our investment in R&D is very stable and has been maintained at approximately 12– 14%. We know that the market is bound to fluctuate, but no matter how the market per- forms, we must invest in R&D. I also mentioned earlier that the entire R&D process for a product from concept to market launch might take six or seven years, so we cannot interrupt this investment. If the market is in a downturn and you interrupt the invest- ment, when the market is warming up, you may miss the opportunity, so we will contin- ue to invest regardless of the degree of market prosperity, which is also a great challenge for us. For example, when the market is optimis- tic, it is easy to decide to invest, but when the market is down or not progressing, investment in R&D is indispensable. Gu: We understand that investing in R&D is a smart business behavior. In fact, there is more industry responsibility behind it. Just like this conference today, everyone is emphasizing the ever more significant improvement of the en- tire industry chain and the technology brought by suppliers. Everyone agrees with this. This is consistent with Orbotech's own cultural val- ues, and it helps customers succeed. We know from Shen's presentation that Orbotech has a long-term cooperative relationship with Avary. For other small and medium enterprises, how can Orbotech enable improvements from the perspective of suppliers? Alcobi: That is a good question. Today, Avary is the world's largest PCB manufacturer, but 15 years ago, when we started our relationship, it was not a big company; it was only worth 30 million USD. We have a total of more than 950 customers, including enterprises of all sizes, and these customers do not purchase from us every time, but we continue to provide support to our customers through a wide range of prod- ucts to suit the needs of different industries. We also have some smaller customers and tailor-made solutions that are suitable for them. If the customer has very clear needs and wants to cooperate with Orbotech, we can also co-develop with them. For example, some cus- tomers with an output value of 20 million USD may spend millions of dollars to buy our DIY products. SMEs come to us, hoping to grow with Orbotech while big companies come to us because they trust us. Different customers will have various purchase needs, and we will cooperate according to the situation. Gu: Technology development in the PCB indus- try is particularly fast. Enterprise customiza- tion requirements are much greater than be- fore. For this part, what characteristics of the Chinese market are different from other coun- tries, and how does Orbotech adjust? Or what good experiences do Chinese enterprises need to learn where Orbotech can act as the pro- moter? Alcobi: We have operations all over the world, but China's PCB industry accounts for a sig- nificant proportion, and it is an im- portant strategic partner for us. In the past many years, some Chinese manufacturers may not be particu- larly good regarding initial technol- ogy and can only produce low-end PCBs, but the situation is com- pletely different now. For Chinese PCB manufacturers, they can do almost everything. A small num- ber of Chinese companies in the IC substrate sector are emerging. For Chinese PCB manufacturers, we can start from process innova- Traditional dress, music and dance were part of the entertainment.