China's electrical industry will enter a new phase of development from now to the year 2020, said an expert of the China Electrotechnical Society (CES) in Beijing Friday.

Zhou Heliang, executive vice president of CES, said at the Second China Building Electrical Development Forum that opened Friday in Beijing that by the end of 2003, China's installed power generation capacity had reached 380 million kilowatts, and by 2005,it will hit over 450 million kilowatts.

Zhou said that by the year 2010, the figure will increase to 650 million kilowatts, and by 2020 to 950 million kilowatts, due to the fast development of China's electrical industry.

According to Zhou, an effective way to solve the current electricity shortage in some areas of China will be accelerating the development of China's electrical industry and increasing installed power generation capacity.

With China's economic development, the demand for its cities' electricity coverage, electrical equipment and household electrical devices is increasing and more and more advanced electronic technologies have been adopted in the urban housing construction.

Zhou said many noted foreign electrical companies have enter the Chinese market, including ABB and Siemens, whose branch factories have covered a large area of China.

Harald Mauch, general manager of the automation and drives group of Siemens Ltd., China, said at the forum that the electrical market in China is very large and Siemens is confident of its development. And Siemens is now considering to increase its investment in this area so as to expand its market share in China.

Shen Jun, general manager of Beijing Leping Electric Equipment Co., Ltd, said with more and more foreign electric firms entering China, there is increasing pressure for domestic companies to makeprofits.

Shen hoped all domestic electric companies that lack of initiatives in technical innovation can learn technical progress from the foreign companies and try to improve their product quality through technical innovation so as to shorten the distance between foreign and domestic electric companies.

Zhou said China is undergoing further opening up amid its fast development, and during such a process, the domestic companies should take opportunities to make Chinese brands acceptable to the world market and improve Chinese companies competitive force.

Source: Xinhua