China's market will keep this growth momentum for five to 10 years, Yang Yuanqing, president of Legend Group, China's largest PC manufacturer, was quoted as saying by Friday's Beijing Morning Post.

Yang predicted that the growth rate for this year would be around 30 percent.

The global PC sales have reportedly shrunk during the past two decades.

The sluggish global market for PCs would not affect the Chinesemarket much, said Chen Chong, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry.

PCs are far from being popular in China as the popularity rate was less than 30 percent in big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai,and Guangzhou which were believed to have the strongest purchasingpower across the country. The figure for the country as a whole was no more than 10 percent.

The Chinese market has a huge potential, according to Beijing Morning Post's report. About 10 million medium-sized and small businesses in China are still using computers individually. Only 2percent of the country's large and medium-sized enterprises have established their intranet.

A low-price policy adopted by Dell has increased its sales in Asia by 40 percent. Some other famous brands, such as IBM and Compaq, are also targeting China's market. Home PC producers were estimated to have an intense competition with the foreign rivals within half a year.

(cctv.com 07/27/2001)