Seoul, Feb 27 (IANS): Samsung Electronics Co. has said its research and development spending hit a record high of 20.1 trillion won ($16.5 billion) last year as it sought to focus on new growth drivers.

The figures represent an 8.3 per cent increase from 2018, according to the annual report of the South Korean tech giant.

The hike came despite Samsung Electronics' poor earnings, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.

Samsung's sales dropped 5.5 per cent on-year to 230.4 trillion won last year, while its operating profit tumbled 52.8 per cent on-year to 27.76 trillion won.

However, the proportion of the firm's R&D expenditure to sales reached 8.8 per cent in 2019, up 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier, the report showed.

Samsung was estimated to have spent most of its R&D expenditure on the development of system chips and its next-generation display panel.

The world's largest memory chipmaker announced last April that it will spend 133 trillion won by 2030 to become the leading player in system chips.

In October, Samsung said it will invest 13 trillion won to produce quantum dot (QD) display panels, with 3.1 trillion won going into the development of new display technologies.

Meanwhile, Samsung said its corporate tax expenses reached 8.6 trillion won last year, down 48.3 per cent from a year earlier due to poor earnings.