Several CEOs of the world's top 500 businesses say China is becoming a world hi-tech center.

Yang Xu, general manager of Intel China, said China of the future would be a digitalized country. Intel has recently invested US$500 million in its Shanghai production base, which can make the world's most advanced chips.

Government statistics show China invested 250 billion yuan (US$30.1 billion) in the field of communications last year.

By the end of April this year, the number of China's mobile phone users had reached 166.64 million, up 9.55 percent compared with the same period last year. China occupies second place in the world in terms of the scale of its communication network.

Kurt Hellstrom, CEO of Ericsson, said his company would shift its research and development (R&D) focus to the Chinese market.

"You will have to put your best product in China in order to stay the world's leading producer," Hellstrom said.

Ericsson has recently set up a R&D institute in Beijing.

It is estimated total R&D input of such multinational giants as Motorola and Microsoft has exceeded five million US dollars. Foreign businesses have set up over 120 R&D centers in China, and there will be 10 more this year.

Chinese graduates returning from overseas have also shown great drive in promoting China's hi-tech development. Zhongguancun, dubbed as China's Silicon Valley, houses over 500 companies set up by returned graduates.

Tan Renqian, vice president of Nortel, said, "One can feel China's ambition. It will surely become a center for global hi-tech."

(People's Daily June 4, 2002)