World Business Leaders Eye Chinese Information Market

Despite worries about world economic slowdown, business leaders attending the Fortune Global Forum here Tuesday expressed confidence in the fast growing Chinese information market and believed it will be an ideal choice for their investment.

More than twenty world business leaders made appearance at the roundtable focused on the potential of the Chinese information market after China joins the World Trade Organization.

The attendees agreed there are huge development potentials for the Chinese information market and, in the coming one or two decades, it will witness unpredictable development, and will be a preferred investment choice for multinationals across the world.

In the last one or two years, hi-tech bubbles have burst one after another, leading to sharp falls on high-tech stocks prices and the economic slowdown in the U.S., Japan, Europe and the world as whole, said James S. Morgan, Chairman and President of Applied Materials, Inc. USA.

However, he said, the Chinese economy exceptionally maintains high growth and offers opportunities for development of world hi- tech enterprises. "People see no signs of an economic slowdown in China."

"The downturn on the world economy has not affected multinationals' investment in China's technology industry," Morgan said, adding that international investors have found development opportunities in China and their returns are expected to increase dramatically in the future.

Wang Zhidong, CEO of Sina.com, said his company got listed on the stock market and he has invested all the 100 million U.S. dollars raised from the listing in exploring the Chinese market.

China has maintained unparalleled growth rate and the best way to avoid a "hi-tech bubble burst" is to invest in China, he said.

Jorma Ollia, President and CEO of Nokia Corporation, said his company has invested 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in China and will increase its investment, in particular, in research and development projects.

Delegates to the roundtable believed that the Chinese technology market has huge potential for development. In the past year, many big companies reduced their investment overseas, but did otherwise in China, they said.

Foreign investment in China in the future will concentrate on infrastructure building and the training of people, business leaders at the forum predicted.

Duan Yongji, general manager of the Zhong Guancun Science Corp., Beijing, said that China is aiming to update its traditional economy with advanced digital technologies and a large number of talents are needed for this purpose.

20 Percent Annual Growth in 5 Years

China's Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan predicted Tuesday China's information sector would enjoy a 20 percent annual growth rate in the next five years, and the market will double its present size likewise.

Wu told a Fortune Global Forum roundtable that China already has a sizable information market, with its telephone users reaching 230 million, or 20.1 percent of the total population, by the end of 2000.

While there were 85 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of 2000, the figure is now more than 100 million, Wu said.

By the end of 2000, Internet users reached 22.5 million and the production of electronics manufacturing industry exceeded one trillion RMB (122 billion U.S. dollars), with export reaching more than 54 billion U.S. dollars, according to Wu.

Wu noted that China's information industry's structure has been rationalized and expanded, and the industry has become the largest industry sector in China.

In the next five years, Wu predicted that China's fixed and mobile phone network will also be doubled, with the total number of subscribers reaching 500 million. And the national telephone penetration rate will reach 40 percent, he said.

Wu also foresaw that in terms of technology, advanced telecommunication technologies, including 3G mobile communications, will employ voice telecommunication, video and data communications in China.

To facilitate China's information industry's development, Wu promised to establish rationalized telecommunication regulations and regulatory system in China.

Noting that digital divide is an inevitable result of imbalance in economic development, he called on the developed countries with advance technologies to relax restrictions placed on technology transfer and assist the developing countries to improve its technology.






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