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As China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is drawing near, many telecom companies from the United States and the European Union are focusing their attention more closely on this great potential market. Since last May, some transnational telecom corporations have expanded their investment in and cooperation with China.
In May of 2000, Nokia initiated the construction of the Xingwang (International) Industrial Park in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area. The park will be the development, manufacturing, marketing and service center for Nokia’s mobile telecom products and components and will grow into one of the most advanced global producers in this regard. President Jorma Ollila of Nokia held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the park, which involves a total investment of 10 billion yuan. The construction of the park is expected to be completed within three years and have an annual sales volume of 50 billion yuan. According to Ollila, Nokia will continuously enlarge its investment in China, and accelerate its production localization and technological transformation.
Meanwhile, Lucent Technologies has invested US$1.5 million for the establishment of a research and development center for an optical networking project in Shanghai, the largest of its kind in Asia. Lucent has built one third of China’s optical transmission network. To facilitate its further development in China, Lucent will make the center, a branch of Bell Laboratories in China, an R&D base for its telecom products in line with the Chinese market. The center will also set up offices in Beijing and Shenzhen.
Ericsson has established its Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in north China’s Heilongjiang Province, the ninth joint venture invested by Ericsson in China. The company mainly handles engineering and technological services and software development for Ericsson’s telecom equipment. Ericsson already has 380,000 personnel, 23 regional offices, and eight joint ventures in China. The Science and Technology Co., Ltd will help Ericsson introduce equipment and technology, and boost China’s development in this sector.
The Motorola Corp. develops WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) mobile phones which offer on-line service provided by 10-odd ICPs and related companies. With an eye on the wireless Internet development in China, Motorola has developed a series of stylish WAP mobile phones suited to the Chinese market, and relies on its updated technology to help Internet operators and ICPs to enlarge their scales.
Siemens has recently signed a memento with several dot companies in China, including China.com, online.sh, and stockstar.com, to conduct strategic cooperation. Before that, Siemens signed an agreement with Yahoo!, Sina, Netease, and byair.com. to offer the same service. So far, Siemens has established cooperative relationships with seven Chinese websites. They will jointly provide wireless Internet content, strengthen the relevant services, and develop various mobile digital data applications.
Notes:
Foreign-Invested Ventures Increasing in China
Official statistics show that by April 2000, China had approved the establishment of 347,873 foreign-invested ventures, with a total investment of US$628.7 billion and an actual utilization of the capital being US$317.594 billion. From January through April this year, 6,060 foreign-invested enterprises had been established in China, and China had approved total contracted foreign funds of US$14.643 billion, increases of 23.05 and 28.24 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year; and had an actual utilization of US$9.742 billion, 4.86 percent down compared to the same period of last year.
Asia, the European Union, northern America, and some free-port countries are expected to expand their investment scales in China.
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