Canon China forecasts that its overall revenue in the country will grow 20 percent year on year in 2009 and the growth figure in east China region is set to surpass that rate, the Japanese camera maker said yesterday.

The expected surge in demand for cameras, printers and video recorders for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai will propel the growth rate in the company's east China region, according to Hisahiro Minokawa, Canon China's vice president in charge of the east China headquarters.

"I believe each visitor to the Expo will carry a camera. More importantly, it's a huge visitor group even compared with the Olympics," Minokawa said during an exclusive interview with Shanghai Daily yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Expo event will also fuel demand for multi-functional printers, according to the company.

Canon China's average annual growth was more than 30 percent in past years.

After facing a "tough time" in the fourth quarter last year and in the first quarter this year, Canon's sales have started to rebound, Minokawa said, but he didn't elaborate.

The world's biggest camera maker said its consumer camera sales will maintain high-speed growth this year as more people are likely to buy cameras ahead of the Expo, Minokawa said.

Separately, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in the first four months of the year, digital camera exports from China were valued at US$1.38 billion, a 34.76 percent drop from a year ago.

In east China, Canon will set up more directly owned after-sales service outlets. It will open an outlet in Hangzhou on Friday, in Nanjing in August and in Wuhan by the end of this year, according to Minokawa.

(Shanghai Daily June 24, 2009)