HONG KONG -- Chinese Minister of Information ruled out the possibility of telecommunication industry recombination on Tuesday on the sidelines of Telecom World 2006, which is being held in Hong Kong from Monday to Friday.

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"We have so far no intention of industry recombination and therefore the ministry has not prepared on this subject," Wang Xudong, minister of information said during his visit to the largest telecommunication exhibition organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

As an emerging and enlarging telecommunication market in the world and the host country of the so-called "Telecom Olympic" exhibition, China is drawing much attention from the industry.

On the issue of 3G's development, Wang said, "Any new technology needs time to be mature and to be accepted by the market. Therefore, we will start 3G program according to the development of market in China and the technology itself."

The minister admitted that Chinese telecommunication companies have done much research on 3G during the past years, including the TD-SCDMA standard developed individually by China.

For which standard to choose among the three major standards in 3G technology, including TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Wang said it should be decided by the telecommunication companies according to the market.

However, the minister acknowledged that the choice of the telecommunication companies in turn would affect the number of license granted by the government.

He said China has promised to provide 3G services before Olympic 2008 in Beijing and China is optimistic in realizing the promise.