This is the first year that Deloitte has carried out such a ranking treating China as an individual region.

The 50 winning companies, coming from 10 cities and regions across China, have achieved an impressive three-year revenue growth average of 1,123 percent.

The top five winners achieved a three-year revenue growth average of 7,029 percent, a staggering increase from the 2,515 percent of the top five Chinese companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2004 Program.

The fastest growing company was found to be Beijing-based Kong Zhong Corporation, a leading provider of advanced second-generation (2.5G) wireless interactive entertainment, media and services. Its revenues grew by 23,849 percent in the past three years.

Shenzhen-based EYANG Technology Development Co Ltd came second with a 4,124 percent three-year average revenue growth.

Following closely in third place was Verisilicon Holdings (Cayman Island) Co Ltd, an advanced ASIC, specialized semiconductor chip foundry from Shanghai. It recorded a 4,059 percent three-year average revenue growth.

The following industries account for the majority of the winners; communications and networking (34 percent), Internet (22 percent), software (20 percent) and semi-conductor (16 percent). These industries make up 92 percent of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 index.

"Despite the large diversity of the winning industries, they all have one thing in common -- fast revenue growth over the last three years," said Charles Yen, China National Leader of Deloitte's TMT (Technology, media and Telecommunications) Group.

He said that technology companies with fast sustainable growth will continue to emerge in China, given the positive market outlook. "The development of China's high-tech industry will become more sophisticated and diversified."

Deloitte also conducted a survey on the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the winning companies in order to assess their company growth forecasts.

Among the CEOs surveyed, 36 percent predicted company expansion through organic growth, and 29 percent would seek capital from IPOs (initial public offerings). Another 29 percent forecast growth through mergers and acquisitions.

Some 43 percent of the CEOs admitted that limited access to capital was the main factor restricting their growth.

Yen said an increasing number of foreign venture capitalists have started to set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai, in order to observe the industry in China more closely.

There were about US$1.2 billion's worth of ventures formed with China last year, and Yen believes that such a figure could grow by 20 to 30 percent each year.

The wireless network industry is the leading growth sector in both the short- and long-term, with biotechnology coming second in terms of long-term growth potential, according to Deloitte.

Yen said China still lags behind the world standards in the software sector.

"The scale of this (software) business still lags behind countries like India," he noted.

Deloitte started ranking the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the United States in 1995. It began such a listing in the Asia-Pacific region in 2002.

Winners of yesterday's ranking will automatically qualify for the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2005 Programme, the result of which will be announced on December 8th in Hong Kong.

(China Daily November 24, 2005)