Key facts and figures
Capital city: Beijing
Currency: Renminbi yuan (RMB) per US dollar - 6.8271 (May 2010)
Government: is a People’s Republic and the head of state is President HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003)
Population: 1,338,612,968 (July 2009 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.655% (2009 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 8.7% (2009 est.)
Economy
Since 1978 there has been a strong focus by the leaders of China to develop a market-orientated economy and in that time output has quadrupled. The economy shifted from a centrally controlled system which was almost totally closed to international trade to one which has a fast growing private sector and is highly regarded as a global economic player – the GDP has had more than a tenfold increase since 1978.
As a result of the growing economy the population has improved living standards. For almost 20 years China has been focusing on improving its global reach and participating in the global economy through membership of international organisations with the result that by 2008, annual inflows of foreign direct investment had risen to almost $108 billion.
However, more recently China has begun to focus internally, stepping up its support for the leading state-owned enterprises and looking to foster globally competitive champions for China. The recent economic downturn has made China determined to reform the economy and focus the need to increase domestic consumption so that China would be less dependent on future GDP growth from foreign exports.
Despite the remarkable moves forward that China’s economy has taken thus far, there are still a number of challenges to be faced. With an ageing population and millions of migrants each year there needs to be substantial job growth. This is further exacerbated by an urbanisation rate of around 40% with 200 million people having moved from regional areas into the cities over the past 10 years. As a result of this shift in population, China needs to carefully monitor and contain the environmental and social challenges with a growing gap between the prosperous coastal cities and their agricultural neighbours. Furthermore, the ‘one child’ policy has meant China has one of the fastest aging populations in the world.
Although Beijing and Shanghai have received much of the attention in China, there is speculation that the largest areas of economic growth in China lie in the ‘second tier’ cities. The top three cities have been identified as Shenzhen, Tianjin and Nanjing. Shenzhen has the busiest port in China and is a major centre for foreign investment and trade. The World Bank rated it as the second best investment climate for foreign firms and as having the third most efficient local government. Tianjin is the third largest city and is one of only four municipalities which is directly administered by the central government. As such it has been groomed to become one of the key industrial and distribution hubs – it is ideally placed on the cross roads of six national highways, seven expressways and the sixth largest Chinese port. Nanjing is considered one of the four greatest ancient capitals and has become the second largest economic centre in Eastern China. Forbes magazine recently rated it as one the top ten Chinese commercial cities, it benefits from its close proximity to Shanghai and an abundance of natural resources.
ICT
China has a highly competitive ICT market with the highest absolute number of fixed and mobile lines in use in any one nation in the world. By end of 2009, China had 313.68 million fixed lines in use, and 747.38 million mobile telephones in use. The location of these services however is unevenly distributed which had led to ongoing investments by Chinese state-owned operators to see more equitable access. MIIT statistics by end of 2009 show that there were more than 384 million internet subscribers suggesting that the country has a fairly robust and well used infrastructure in place.
Foreign investment
In June 1995 the Chinese government announced the Interim Provisions for Guiding Foreign Investment and the Industrial Catalogue for Foreign Investment, later revised in 1997. This policy is designed to be conducive to the introduction of advanced technology and encouraging investment in the areas China had identified. It divides industrial projects into four categories – encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited.
China’s laws state that there is a classification administrative system for foreign investment. All independent units (state declared cities, municipalities, provinces and autonomous regions) have the authority to approve foreign investments of less than $30 million in the areas which have been encouraged or permitted by the state. If the investment is over $30 million then the application and a feasibility report needs to be submitted and approved by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. Many of these independent units have established ‘one stop’ services from legal consultations to assistance with procuring project approval.
Telstra in China
Telstra Corporation has built a longstanding association with China since 1988. Telstra now supports our customers from offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
Telstra has a proud history of being the exclusive telecommunication advisor to the Beijing Organizing Committee for Olympic Games during 2002-2008, and signed broadcasting partnership with China Netcom for joint services to the Beijing Olympic Games.
Since 2003, Telstra was honoured as a member of International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Shanghai Mayor.
In the world’s largest ICT market, Telstra has established long-term development in China having signed an OSS agreement with China Telecom and China Unicom for MNC services; and have invested in various companies in media and mobile VAS industry including:
- SouFun, China’s No.1 real estate website with over 80 million unique visitors every month.
- Autohome & Che168, No. 1 in Chinese online automotive market.
- PCPop & IT168, No.2 in Chinese online digital device market.
- China M, key service provider for China Mobile and China Unicom, it serves 400K customers everyday.
- Sharp Point, exclusive provider for China Mobile music platform with 320,000 titiles.
- Lmobile, China’s leading mobile advertising company providing 2-3 million marketing messages per day.
Through leveraging strong local and regional partnerships, Telstra can offer access to a wide portfolio of networking solutions in China to meet the needs of customers. Some key product offerings are outlined below:
IP VPN
Telstra can arrange for delivery of a highly resilient, seamless IP VPN services across China through our partnerships with local operators.
International Private Lines
By working with our local Chinese partners, Telstra offers highly cost-effective, secure, dedicated connectivity to our customers needing private lines into China.
VPLS and EVPL
Telstra is a leading provider of Ethernet solutions in Asia Pacific and can offer VPLS and EVPL services across China via our local Chinese partners.
Internet Access
Telstra offers high quality access to the public internet via our local Chinese partners. Telstra operates Asia’s leading backbone with investments in multiple sub-sea cable systems and extensive private peering arrangements, enabling customers to enjoy low latency and superior access to the internet.
Call your account manager today to find out how Telstra can support your business in China.