Added-value telecommunications services opened to foreign capital

Xi Guohua, the vice minister of the Information Industry of China said at the annual session of the 2007 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) that China's added-value telecommunication industry has been opened to foreign capital

Xi Guohua said that the government has authorized more than 22,000 added-value telecommunications enterprises, and that this sector has become the main part of China's telecommunications industry. He said that breaking-up the monopoly and opening the competition will benefit the development of China's telecommunication industry and the national economy. China welcomes foreign investment in Chinese telecom operators, as promised by China when it acceded to the WTO.

In 2006, the five-year transition period for China's entry into WTO ended. Now, foreign companies may have up to a 49 percent stake in basic telecom operation businesses, and up to 50 percent in added-value telecommunications services.

By People's Daily Online