From Edmund Quaynor, GNA Special Correspondent, China

Shanghai, July 26, GNA- Mr Dai Shu, Vice-President of ZTE Shanghai, manufacturers of telecommunication equipment, has explained that the success of Chinese companies in the face of the world financial crisis was due to the strong support of the government and financial institutions.

He said the feat was also due to the innovation of Chinese entrepreneurs and the relatively low cost of production in the country. Mr Shu made this known when he interacted with Senior African journalists in Shangai, who are undertaking a two- week seminar in China as part of activities to mark the Sixth session of the China-African relations, which comes on later in the year. He said during the first quarter of the year, the total revenue of the company increased by 35 per cent as compared to 2008 and expressed confidence that the entity could meet its growth rate for 2009. Mr Shu said last year the company recorded gross revenue of 6,388 million dollars, which represented an increase of over 27.37 per cent as against what the company achieved in 2007. It also made a net profit of 239 million dollars, while the earnings per share increased to 22 dollars.

Mr Shu said the company annually invested 10 per cent of its gross revenue into research and development and had 15 research and development centres throughout the world including the US, India, Sweden, China, while employing 20,000 research and development engineers.

He said the company was the only Chinese telecommunication manufacturing company listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Mr Shu said ZTE was a major player on the African telecommunication front and had supplied more than 20 million telephones to Vodafone. 26 July 09