Telecoms execs like bulls in China shop
Author: (LI WEITAO)
November 12,2002
A herd of international telecoms executives running from the global downturn in the sector stampeded into a Beijing convention hall last week looking for a greater share of the world's fastest-growing telecoms market.
Nearly 600 telecoms companies from 24 countries and regions attended Beijing's PT/Expo Comm China 2002, which concluded on Saturday.
"Most trade shows in the world are getting smaller and smaller, except those in China," said Sue Warner, a marketing manager with Ciena, a US-based provider of intelligent optical networking systems and software.
"Everyone is spending money here ... China is a market of immense opportunities," Warner told Business Weekly on the show's sidelines.
Ciena's business has been hard hit by weak demand amid the worldwide slump in the telecoms sector, prompting the company to put China, the world's most populous country, at the top of its business strategy.
"No other market is as important as China for Ciena," Gary Smith, Ciena's president and chief executive officer, said in an earlier interview.
Low penetration in China's mobile phone sector and the growing number of handset users promise substantial business opportunities for foreign telecoms firms.
China has 190 million mobile phone users, yet the market penetration rate is less than 15 per cent.
Ciena "is very likely to attend the next telecoms show in China," Warner said.
Foreign exhibitors were looking during the trade show - by making contacts with other exhibitors - for a return on the money they had spent ahead of the expo.
"China is very important to our worldwide operations," said Shlomo Breines, a business development director with Dekolink Wirelsss Ltd, an Israel-based wireless company.
Breines, who attended the last two telecoms shows, pins a lot of hope in China's market.
"China is a very big market for us. We will continue expanding our operations here," he said.
Dekolink's sales in China account for about 50 per cent of its global business, he added.
While attendance at most other IT (information technology) and telecoms fairs has fallen amid the global economic downturn, last week's show was bustling.
The show's organizer said yesterday nearly 400,000 people attended the expo, up about 5 per cent from last year's show.
The influx of visitors to the show caused several traffic jams in front of the exhibition hall.
"The number of visitors to the expo is apparently increasing," said Chie Nagai, an exhibition co-ordinator with Fujitsu Ltd.
"You can see here it's very crowded. It's too much for us."
Nagai said the quality of exhibitors had improved.
"The number of low-level visitors is decreasing, and middle-level visitors is rising," she said.
"Besides, the number of small exhibitors at the expo is increasing."
Han Jae Jin, with South Korea's SK Telecom, said China's underdeveloped telecommunications industry promises huge business opportunities for foreign firms.
"Chinese visitors are showing increasing interest in the novel technology, especially in having a chance to ogle the latest mobile phones," he said.
SK Telecom built a super-high-speed CDMA2000 1X EV-DO network, in the exhibition hall, on which video mobile phones and mobile Internet card services could be used.
"We will introduce into the Chinese market the various kinds of mobile Internet service models that have proven records in the Korean market," said Pyo Moon Soo, president of SK Telecom.
"We will co-operate closely with telecoms operators in China, and help them develop this huge market."
Most foreign firms' officials said China would continue to be the buzzword for their business.
"No one is willing to lose the China market in the face of a broader global slowdown," said George Zhuo, sales
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