IBM and Great Wall group launch $25 million venture<\/p>\n
BEIJING (Reuters): U.S. computer giant IBM Corp and China
\nGreat Wall Computer Group announced on Tuesday the launch of a
\nUS$25 million plant in Beijing to make circuit boards for Nokia
\nCorp mobile phones.<\/p>\n
The joint venture signals an opportunity for electronics firms
\nto cash in on China's booming wireless market as Beijing requires
\ncell phone makers to buy their components domestically.<\/p>\n
The plant, called Beijing GKI Electronics Co Ltd, has already
\nbeen built in a new technology park developed by Nokia and will
\nbegin delivering printed circuit cards early next year, Henry
\nChow, chairman of the IBM Greater China Group, told reporters.<\/p>\n
It is owned 70 percent by IBM China and 30 percent by Great
\nWall Shenzhen Co, and is similar to a profitable circuit board
\nplant operated by the partners since 1995 in the southern city of
\nShenzhen, Chow said.<\/p>\n
That plant, called Shenzhen GKI, manufactures circuit boards
\nmainly for personal computers. Both plants have flexible assembly
\nlines capable of producing boards for all sorts of electronics
\ncustomers, he said.<\/p>\n
\"The combination of the Beijing and Shenzhen capacity will
\nallow us to produce a million cards a month,\" Chow said.<\/p>\n
The initial focus would be on cards for Nokia, he said.<\/p>\n
Ventures supplying mobile phone manufacturers are likely to
\nmultiply in China as its rapid growth in mobile phone sales,
\ntwinned with strict Chinese import quotas, drive foreign wireless
\ncompanies to localize every aspect of their production lines.<\/p>\n
On Monday, U.S. telecoms equipment maker Motorola Inc said it
\nhas become the largest foreign investor in China with approval to
\ninvest $1.9 billion in a massive new silicon chip-making complex
\nand factory expansion in Tianjin<\/p>\n
In May, Nokia broke ground on the vast Xingwang International
\nIndustrial Park in Beijing, which it and the Chinese government
\nhope will lure $1.2 billion in investment from foreign and
\nChinese suppliers to Nokia.<\/p>\n
The new venture between IBM and Great Wall is the first tenant
\nin the park besides Nokia, which has made the 40-hectare (100
\nacre) campus home to its largest plant in China.<\/p>\n
Beijing, in an attempt to master foreign technology which
\nwould help it beef up state-owned telecoms companies and create
\njobs, enforces strict quotas on imported mobile equipment.<\/p>\n
It requires foreign manufacturers to localize assembly of
\nhandsets and network gear in exchange for share of the market --
\nthe world's second largest with more than 56 million subscribers.<\/p>\n
But increasingly, Beijing is requiring phone makers to
\nlocalize not only assembly, but sources of components as well.<\/p>",
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