Samsung Electronics said Friday it had 320,000 employees around the globe as of the end of December last year and had spent 16.8 trillion won ($15.3 billion) on research and development projects.

According to its annual business report, Samsung Electronics had 320,671 staff members as of 2017, up 3.9 percent from 308,745 a year earlier.

By region, South Korea accounted for 96,458, up 3.5 percent over the cited period. The company had 224,213 employees on its payroll in other countries, up 4 percent on-year. The number of overseas employees first exceeded those at home in 2011.

The number of employees in China moved down 6 percent on-year to 34,843. Those in the Middle East and Africa also declined 7.8 percent and 19.7 percent, respectively, the report showed.