Xi Guohua, vice minister of China's Ministry of Information Industry, reiterated at the Annual Conference 2007 of the Boao Forum for Asia that China has already opened its value-added telecom service to foreign companies.
Xi said that until now, China has approved the establishment of 22,000 value-added telecom companies and value-added telecom service has become an important part of China's telecom industry. He said that breaking up monopolization and introducing competition are conducive to the development of China's telecom industry as well as the national economy, so China welcomes foreign telecom operators to come to the country under the premise of its commitments to the World Trade Organization.
2006 was when China finished its five-year transitional period for joining the WTO and by that year China had approved foreign companies to hold a maximum of 49% of the stake in the basic telecom service of Chinese companies and up to 50% of stake in the telecom value-added services.
