Fair: A Rallying Point for IT GiantsInternational and Chinese telecom giants are competing for attention at the 2000 China International Telecommunications Exhibition and the 14th China Telecommunication Products Fair, which opened in Shanghai yesterday.About 300 telecom businesses such as Motorola, Nokia, Lucent Technologies, Nortel, Siemens, Andrew Corp and China's Putian Information Industry Corp and Datang Telecom are displaying their latest products and technologies in an 18,000-square-metre area inside the Shanghai Everbright Convention Center until Saturday. The fast changing nature of telecom technologies has given the industry a great deal of space to develop and expand. China's imminent entry into the World Trade Organization is likely to fuel another investment wave into the already fiercely competitive Chinese market by multinational telecom companies, according to a press release from the exhibitions' organizing committee. It added that China's State-owned companies have also enjoyed phenomenal growth in the last decade and some of their products on show, such as broadband and wireless networks and fibre-optics, have reached advanced international standards. China's telecom industry has developed enormously in the last decade. In 1999 alone, more than 17.96 million mobile telephone users were added to the network, bringing the total number to 43 million by the end of the year. This growth rate, which is the highest in the world, has continued this year and the total number of mobile phone users has now reached 50 million. This figure is expected to hit 70 million by the end of this year, according to the press release. During the four-day exhibition, seminars will be held to inform domestic telecom businesses about the latest international market developments. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |