According to Bai Jingsheng, director of the Tianjin Motorcycle Technical Center, domestic manufacturers will face great pressures to expand exports after the WTO entry for the reason of intellectual property right protection.

Presently, more than 100 domestic manufacturers copy models from foreign companies, such as Honda of Japan - one of the world's motorcycle giants.

"To develop their own new technology and products has become a very urgent task for domestic manufacturers to export more products," Bai said during the ongoing 2001 Beijing International Motorcycle Exposition.

Du Fangci, an official from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said yesterday independent development should be on top of the motorcycle industry's agenda.

Domestic manufacturers still lag far behind foreign competitors in the development ability, although China has become the world's largest motorcycle producer.

China produced more than 11.5 million motorcycles last year, nearly half of the world's total output.

"To expand exports is a crucial strategy for the industry because of an oversupply on the domestic motorcycle market," Du said.

The market is also hindered by the fact that around 70 Chinese cities ban or limit the use of motorcycles in an attempt to alleviate air pollution and traffic jams.

Du predicted Chinese motorcycle exports will exceed 2 million units this year, compared with 1.98 million last year.

Domestic motorcycle manufacturers vowed to strengthen their own ability in new technology and product development to increase exports.

He Shibin, president of the Chongqing-based Jialing Group, China's No 1 motorcycle producer, said the company aims to export one-third of its output within the next five years, mainly through new product development and overseas production.

"Improvements in the development ability will significantly increase our competitiveness and help avoid price wars between domestic manufacturers on foreign markets," He said.

Chinese manufacturers have waged numerous price wars to struggle for market shares in the Southeast Asian nations, such as Viet Nam and Indonesia.

He said Jialing expects to produce more than 800,000 motorcycles and export 100,000 units this year.

The group will display three new self-developed motorcycles during the five-day motor exposition.

Li Shuyi, a standing board director of the Jinan-based China Qingqi Co, said the company will invest tens of millions of yuan in developing up to two new products each quarter next year.

"Output of new products will account for one-third of our total production next year," Li said.

(China Daily December 3, 2001)