Guangdong Information Industry met on April 4th and announced that Guangdong's first LCD flat screen project was officially launched. The project shows the provincial information industry's determination to seek innovation breakthroughs in key areas this year.

15-time national champion

Guangdong's information industry reached an annual growth of 31 percent in the past five years. With an output exceeding 1 trillion RMB, the industry contributed eight percent of Guangdong's total GDP, becoming the largest industrial sector of the province.

Guangdong was first place in the country for the fifteenth straight year in the information industry output. The province accounted for one third of the output, exportation and sales revenue of China's information products. The province produced 40.85 million TV sets, half of the country's total output and its software and systems integrated products sales volume soared 29.7 percent to hit 51.59 billion RMB.

Innovation products

Guangdong leads other provinces not only in information product output and sales but also in innovation and key technology R&D. Some enterprises in the provinces have developed world-leading information products. In 2004, ZTE launched GoTa (Global open Trunking architecture), the world's first such technology based on CDMA2000 technology, while Huawei developed GSM-based GT800, the first Chinese digital cluster standards recognized by International Standard Organization.

An increasing number of made-in-Guangdong information products are appearing in international markets. Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd, based in Zhuhai, takes up 40 percent share of international mp3 chip market, and the company's output value rocketed from millions of RMB three years ago to hundreds of millions last year. Huawei, ZTE, TCL were actively tapping the overseas markets and made a stand in the global 3G and consumer electronic product market. In 2005, the sales revenue of Huawei went up 40 percent year on year to reach 45.3 billion RMB. The company's foreign market sales made 58 percent of its total revenue, topping domestic sales for the first time.

Next steps

In the coming five years, Guangdong plans to improve its innovation capacity, support key technology R&D and further computerization systems. In 2006, the consumer electronic product sector, the e-government system, office computerization and other enterprises will receive further promotion as communication networks reach the more remote rural and mountainous regions.

Guangdong is home to many seasoned consumer electronic product manufacturers, whose products are very popular in the market. Further improving the consumer electronic product sector will be a very important measure for Guangdong's information industry to keep its leading place in China.

LCD manufacturing projects and digital home projects are identified as the province's foray into improving the consumer electronic product sector, said Xu Zhibiao, Director General of the Information Industry in Guangdong, in a recent interview.

LCD is a necessary part of almost all consumer electronic products, such as TVs, computers and mobile phones. However, Guangdong has no large LCD manufacturing base yet. In 2005, the province imported 1 billion LCDs, spending 8.5 billion USD. If Guangdong does not launch its own LCD projects, TV manufacturers may move their plants from Guangdong to other provinces or regions to reduce production cost.

LG-Philip and other multinational enterprises also have hatched plans to launch LCD projects in Guangdong. At present, several multi-billion-USD projects have been launched. According to Xu, Guangdong will develop into an LCD R&D and manufacturing center in the world by attracting foreign-funded projects and improving its own R&D capacities.

Meanwhile, Guangdong is promoting digital home projects with a target to develop itself into both the biggest digital household product manufacturer and consumer in China.

Editor: Yan