Executives from some of the top global 500 companies yesterday
shared their experiences of and opinions on the Chinese market with
domestic entrepreneurs at a Beijing forum.
With China now the biggest telecommunications market, telecom
companies were prominent in yesterday's Forum of Global 500
Companies' CEOs and Top Chinese Entrepreneurs.
Speakers from German firm Siemens, Canada's Nortel Networks,
Japan's Kyocera and China's Putian -- the country's biggest telecom
equipment vendor -- further indicated China's importance in the
global telecom market.
Masood Tariq, vice-president of Nortel Networks, said: "China will
surpass the US market within two to three months to become the
biggest fixed-line telecom market."
The Chinese mainland became the biggest mobile-phone market last
year and had registered 166.6 million users by the end of last
month.
Tariq said Nortel's joint-venture company in Guangdong Province had
become his company's key equipment supplier to the Asia-Pacific
region and would soon become one of Nortel's global manufacturing
bases.
"Nortel witnessed the rapid growth of China's telecom market and is
one of the core equipment providers," Tariq added. He said the
company was confident about China's sustainable development.
Heinrich Pierer, president and chief executive of Siemens,
suggested that Chinese companies should endeavor to upgrade their
management level to become globally competitive.
After China's accession to the World Trade Organization, more
multinationals will come here, making the competition fiercer, he
said.
Pierer said management was the most important weapon to help
Chinese companies sharpen their competitive edge.
No
Chinese telecom equipment vendor has yet made it onto the Global
500 list.
But Ouyang Zhongmo, president of Putian, predicted that his company
would make the list before the year 2005.
China's information technology industry has entered a new era and
there will be more cooperation between foreign companies and
Chinese firms, Ouyang said.
Cooperation with multinationals will speed up the process of
Chinese companies becoming international companies, he said.
(China
Daily May 25, 2002)