Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Sherman who wrote (40475)	9/12/1999 11:35:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

China> On Hold Telecommunications, in general, has been one of the hardest industries for foreign investors to break into in China. On the one hand, China's reluctance to bow to pressure to open up the world's second biggest market -- it has more than 100 million lines -- is one reason why WTO talks are snagged. On the other, the government seems divided on the pace of opening. In April, Premier Zhu Rongji offered the U.S. up to 49 percent foreign share in all telecommunications services, and 51 percent for value-added and paging units within four years after entering the WTO. That's up from zero percent ownership now. That offer may have been more than what Zhu's cabinet colleagues want, however, with negotiators from the European Union given a less generous offer during talks in May, E.U. officials said. Foreign makers of phone equipment are also left hanging as the WTO negotiations drag on. For LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish supplier of mobile and fixed-line phone equipment, it means delays in deciding whether to make one of its newest handset models, the R250 PRO, in China. ''In a non-WTO world we might actually have to set up a small assembly operation for even that phone if we want to sell it in China,'' said Michael Ricks, president of Ericsson (China) Co. Ltd. If China enters the WTO, it's likely Ericsson will be able to import the handsets at a lower tariff rate than now, making it unnecessary to build new production lines. Years of delay in China's approval of U.S.-standard CDMA mobile telephone technology may also be over if China joins the WTO. That would boost orders for suppliers such as Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Lucent Technologies, which has already hired more than 200 staff to start selling the CDMA service and equipment in China, is mulling letting some go if there's no approval soon. Chinese View For many Chinese firms, the drawn-out WTO talks are a good thing, giving them more time to prepare for fiercer competition. Take Wuhan Steel Processing Company Ltd., a maker of cold- rolled silicon steel products used in electrical machinery. China slashed import quotas for such products by 40 percent this year - - action that would have been barred if China were in the WTO -- filling Wuhan's order books beyond capacity.