Foreign cigarette maker to enter China market
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-17 01:52

British American Tobacco is to become the first foreign company to manufacture cigarettes in China.

The group, whose brands include Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall, has been given approval from the Chinese government to set up a factory capable of producing 100 billion cigarettes a year. 

It will mark the first time an outsider has moved into cigarette production in the country, which until now has been run as a state monopoly.

China is the largest tobacco market in the world with annual sales of around 1.78 trillion cigarettes.

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