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BIZCHINA / Center
China to restructure telecom industry
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-04 14:18
China's supervisor of State-owned assets has planned to launch
restructuring of the telecommunications sector in the fourth quarter of
this year and finish the reform in March 2008, the latest issue of
Caijing Magazine reported.
Caijing, one of China's most influential financial publications, said the
State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC),
which has been mulling over the reform since 2004, has formulated a
restructuring plan, but it is not finalized yet and needs approval from
higher levels.
Currently China has four major players in the telecommunications sector,
namely China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecommunications and China
Netcom. The sharp differences among their operational results have fused
the restructuring.
According to their half-year reports, China Mobile recorded a net profit
of 37.9 billion yuan (US$4.99 billion); while that of China Unicom, 5.65
billion yuan; China Telecommunications, 13.48 billion yuan; and China
Netcom, 6.713 billion yuan.
A telecommunications expert said that SASAC has hoped that the major
operators can solve the restructuring problems through talks among
themselves, but it did not go very well.
"Directed by the government while handling in line with market rules will
be the main pattern of the restructuring," he said.
Chen Jinqiao, deputy chief engineer of the Telecommunications Research
Institute under the Ministry of Information Industry, said the major
target of the upcoming restructuring is to "realize a harmonized
development of the telecommunications market," after which the
competitors will narrow their differences in asset scales.
Whichever way the restructuring goes, the report says, the key influence
on the development of the industry is still monopolizing the position of
State-owned capital, for private and foreign capital, entering China's
domestic telecommunications operational market is still "a mission
impossible".
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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