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)