Datang Telecom has won approval for an overseas listing of a unit that develops technology for China’s homegrown and largely untested third-generation (3G) mobile standard, a senior executive said Thursday.

A listing in Hong Kong for Beijing Xinwei Telecom Technology Co., which develops technology for China’s TD-SCDMA mobile standard, was a strong possibility, Datang vice president Tang Ruan said at a conference in Shanghai. He declined to give further details on the place or timing of the offering.

“An overseas listing is part of the reform process for State-owned enterprises,” Tang told reporters on the sidelines of the forum, hosted by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. “It will also raise money and facilitate development of the entire industry.”

Xinwei received the approval from China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, he said.

Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group is a Chinese company that develops TD-SCDMA, which has been field-tested in China but never widely deployed.

Chinese peers such as Huawei Technologies and Zhongxing Telecom Co., along with Germany’s Siemens AG, have been developing equipment for the standard.

But most major foreign players, including Motorola Inc., Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies, have largely stayed away so far.

TD-SCDMA would have to compete with the world’s leading 3G standards, the WCDMA standard being deployed in much of Western Europe and CDMA 2000 used in South Korea, Japan and the United States.

China has yet to issue 3G licenses, and is not expected to do so until next year. Industry watchers generally expect anywhere from two to four licenses, with at least one partly or entirely based on TD-SCDMA.

(Shenzhen Daily September 3, 2004)