CHINA'S largest search engine site Baidu plans to set up a research center in Singapore as another step in its international expansion.

The joint laboratory set up by Baidu and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, is called Baidu-Institute for Infocomm Research Center.

It will focus on language processing technologies for Southeast Asian languages, like Vietnamese and Thai.

"It marks an important step in Baidu's commitment to enhance our products in Southeast Asia," the company said in a statement yesterday.