The Yangtze River Delta, a leading economic growth belt in east
China, has gained increasing notability for its global mobile
communications firms and may emerge as the country's "Mobile
Valley".
Nearly all world-famous communications companies including Nokia,
Siemens, Motorola, Mitsubishi Electric, Bosch, Alcatel, Samsung and
Toshiba have set up branch offices within the delta that includes
the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Kunshan.
In
addition, many domestic communications companies such as EastCom
have also beefed up their presence there.
In
Hangzhou city alone, the annual output of mobile phones is as high
as 100 million units.
Last Friday, the Hangzhou Modern Communications Industrial Park was
formally founded. At its opening ceremony, investment contracts
worth 100 million US dollars were inked.
Shi Jixing, board chairman of the park's development company, said
the park, with a budget investment of 200 million yuan (about24.1
million US dollars) by companies from home and abroad, will create
an export value of five billion US dollars in the next five
years.
The world's manufacturing base for mobile communications products
was shifting from developed countries to China and almost a half of
its production would be completed within the Yangtze River Delta,
Shi noted.
As
the number of Chinese mobile phone users has reached 200 million
and continues to grow at a daily rate of 200,000, he said the
country's potential in the communications sector is vast.
(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2003)