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Motorola Boosts China Investment
11/07/2001 BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. telecommunications equipment giant Motorola Inc said on Wednesday it will invest $6.6 billion in China over the next five years and double the annual production of its Chinese subsidiary and joint ventures. Motorola's investment in China -- now a cumulative $3.4 billion since it first invested in China in 1992 -- would reach $10 billion by 2006, spokeswoman Shelagh Lester-Smith told Reuters. ``From its current level of $3.4 billion, it will have reached $10 billion of cumulative investment by the year 2006,'' she said. That would mean $6.6 billion of investment over five years, she said, in a much more aggressive rate of annual investment than previously despite weak global conditions. Motorola said last month shrinking demand for some of its products may result in its first full year operating loss in at least 45 years. Lester-Smith said Motorola's investment in China covered employing workers and building offices and factories, including at least 10 semi-conductor wafer fabrication plants and other facilities. The annual output of Motorola's China unit, Motorola China Electronics Ltd., and its eight joint venture firms would double to $10 billion by 2006, she said. Annual output includes the revenues of domestic exports and joint venture output, which will be about $5 billion this year, she said. Motorola's Chief Executive Officer Christopher Galvin, in Beijing for a board of directors meeting, would announce the plans to Chinese officials, customers and suppliers later on Wednesday, she added. CHINA OPPORTUNITIES DEFY GLOBAL SLUMP ``We're holding a board of directors meeting here in Beijing, which we've done once before, and we felt it was time again to hold another board of directors meeting here,'' said Lester-Smith, who is based at the firm's headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. She said Motorola's higher rate of investment in China was due to a slew of factors, including China's expected entry into the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) by the end of this year, low penetration in the mobile market and steady market reforms. ``It's an important market. We just have enormous opportunities in broadband, in wireless and in the Internet, not to mention in the sweet spot in which they all merge,'' Lester-Smith said. Motorola has been less optimistic about its future in the rest of the world. It said last month the firm expected a fourth consecutive quarterly loss due to a global slump in demand for some of its products. Motorola also said it would cut another 7,000 jobs, bringing lay-offs for the year to 32,000, or 26 percent of its workforce. News Archive |
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