China Launches First Foreign-controlled Telecom Firm

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 29, 2002

China Launches First Foreign-controlled Telecom Firm

Alcatel Shanghai Bell, the first foreign-invested telecom company limited by shares in China, was officially launched Tuesday in Shanghai, this coastal industrial and financial center in east China.

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Alcatel Shanghai Bell, the first foreign-invested telecom company limited by shares in China, was officially launched Tuesday in Shanghai, this coastal industrial and financial center in east China.

This milestone move in the international cooperation of the China telecom sector was made one day prior to the convening of the APEC Ministerial Meeting of Telecommunications and Information Industries (Telmin5), which drew widespread attention from both at home and abroad.

According to an agreement made last October, the shares controlled by Alcatel in Shanghai Bell increased to 50% plus one share, thus earning it the dominant status in this giant joint venture.

In another development, on March 22 this year, Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications Co. Ltd, a telecom operating company that AT & T from the United States controls 25% of its share, was founded, unveiling the first step for foreign investment to set foot in the telecom operating sector in China.

Experts held that the moves demonstrate that China's telecom sector has accelerated the pace of opening up and cooperating with the outside world after China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

Statistics show that by the end of last year, the number of China's mobile phone users and fixed phone subscribers accounted for 15% and 17% of the world's total, respectively. The number of mobile phone users ranks first in the world.

Chinese officials attending the upcoming Telmin5 said that China will further strengthen international cooperation and made its ties closer with other countries and regions in the fields of telecom technologies, services, management and talents.

In 1997, China's telecommunications and information sector began to set foot in the international capital market. Since then, a total of 20 billion U.S. dollars has been raised.

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