Fergie's Tech Blog

Chinese telecoms chief calls for more protectionism

Mure Dickie writes in FT.com:

The chairman of ZTE, one of China's biggest telecommunications equipment companies, has urged the government to do more to protect domestic companies from foreign competition in their home market.

Hou Weigui, ZTE co-founder and chairman, told the Financial Times, in his first interview with an international media organisation, that China was much more open to foreign equipment vendors than other countries and too little was being done to support Chinese companies. His highly unusual call for action from Beijing reflects dissatisfaction among China's telecoms manufacturers over foreign rivals' dominant role in the market and what they see as a failure by state-owned operators to favour local suppliers.

Any attempt by Beijing to respond to such complaints could have major implications for companies such as Nokia, Lucent and Alcatel. With annual telecoms industry capital expenditure of more than Rmb200bn ($25bn) a year since 2000, China has become an important source of demand for such companies.

posted by Fergie @ 10/18/2005 11:13:00 AM