TMCnet News
ZTE, BELARUS TO CONTINUE TALKS ON LAUNCHING PHONE ASSEMBLY PRODUCTIO N(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) MINSK. June 21 (Interfax) - The next round of negotiations on launching assembly production of mobile telephones in Belarus with the Chinese telecommunications corporation ZTE will take place "closer to the fall," Belarus Communication and Information Technology Minister Nikolai Pantelei told Interfax. "We are discussing the arrangement of the assembly production at one of our enterprises," the minister said. Prospects for the launch of assembly production in Belarus will primarily depend on the capacity of the market, he said. "We could count on the Russian market, but we have yet to win this market," Pantelei said. It was earlier reported that ZTE planned to arrange assembly production of mobile phones in Belarus by the end of 2006. The company's plans to set up such an enterprise with 100% foreign capital in a free economic zone in Belarus were made public by Chinese diplomatic workers in Belarus in January 2006. The initial plan is to release up to 1 million phones a year, according to ZTE. The volume of production at the initial stage will depend on the volume of expected sales. ZTE intends to invest $1 million in the first phase of the project. The phones produced at the plant in Belarus are expected to be sold on the Belarussian market and in Russia, the Baltic States, and Western Europe. |