The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia expects subscriber growth in China to continue roaring ahead in the coming five years.

And the Finnish firm, which makes one out of three mobile phones worldwide, is well positioned to benefit from the robust subscriber growth in the country, according to Jorma Ollila, chief executive officer of Nokia.

"We believe that by 2010, China will have added another 250 million mobile subscribers, making it the single largest mobile market in the world," Ollila said on Friday.

Currently China has more than 380 million mobile subscribers.

Nokia controls a 33-34 percent share of the global mobile phone market.

Ollila said the firm now has more than 30 percent share of the Chinese handset market including Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Nokia has recorded whopping sales growth since it wrestled the No 1 position in China's mobile phone market from Motorola in January 2004.

"In the first nine months of 2005, we sold 23 million handsets in China region, a year-on-year increase of 77 percent," said Ollila.

During the period, its sales in China region exceeded US$3.3 billion, with exports hitting US$2.3 billion.

Ollila did not give any previous figures.

The chief executive vowed to invest more in China in the coming years, focusing mainly on research and development (R&D) activities.

And the rapid rise of India as a major telecoms market will not affect Nokia's investment plan in China, Ollila said in an interview with China Daily.

The deregulation of India's telecoms market has resulted in an investment boom. The country has an increasing number of high-profile investment deals from global technology giants.

For instance, in October US-based telecoms giant Cisco Systems announced US$1 billion in new investment in India.

"India is a very promising market with great potential. Obviously we have high expectations there," said Ollila.

But Nokia will continue to beef up investment in China and "has no plans to move R&D (activities) to India (from China)," he said.

Nokia has invested a total of more than US$2.2 billion in China since it entered the country 20 years ago.

The robust growth of China's telecoms market will also give a boost to Nokia's network equipment business.

Nokia is the world's second largest mobile telecoms equipment maker.

The Chinese Government is widely expected to award operators with licences to build the 3G (third generation) mobile networks early next year.

(China Daily November 26, 2005)