This paper reports that the m-plane GaN layer is grown on (200)-plane LiAlO2 substrate by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) method. Tetragonal-shaped crystallites appear at the smooth surface. Raman measurement illuminates the compressive stress in the layer which is released with increasing the layer’s thickness. The high transmittance (80%), sharp band edge and excitonic absorption peak show that the GaN layer has good optical quality. The donor acceptor pair emission peak located at ～3.41 eV with full-width at half maximum of 120 meV and no yellow peaks in the photoluminescence spectra partially show that no Li incorporated into GaN layer from the LiAlO2substrate.