HONG KONG: TCL Corporation, the largest consumer electronics maker on the mainland, said the company is working with China Mobile to promote third-generation (3G) mobile phones on the mainland.

George Guo, president of TCL Communication Technology - the Hong Kong-listed handset unit of TCL Corporation - said he believes China Mobile will be faster than its rivals in developing a mature next-generation network.

"We will follow China Mobile's network-construction situation to provide them with sufficient products," Guo said yesterday after a company meeting.

The central government officially handed out 3G mobile licenses to three major telephone operators on the mainland in early January.

China Mobile, the world's largest wireless telephone carrier, received a license on a home-grown TD-SCDMA, while smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom were granted more mature licenses on WCDMA and CDMA 2000, respectively.

Guo said TCL Communication will introduce more new mobile phones, adopting the TD-SCDMA network, into the market this year, while the company has already been developing the WCDMA handsets in its overseas market.

"We hope the mobile phones are ready once the networks have been completed," Guo said.

TCL Corp, meanwhile, expects to benefit from the central government's policy of subsidizing rural households to buy electrical appliances.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tomson Li said their first-quarter sales will gradually improve because of the plan.

Li said 83 TCL products, including telecommunication, electrical and multimedia appliances, have been included in the plan.

More than half of TCL's total products can benefit from the subsidizing, which accounts for less than 50 percent of the company's sales.

Since the majority of the mainland population lives in rural areas, Li said, the impact will be very significant.

Amid the global financial crisis, overseas sales of TCL Corp have recorded a decline since the third quarter of 2008.

However, the mainland market has performed better than expected, Li said.

"Especially our LCD TVs, which showed a remarkable growth on the mainland in the forth quarter," Li added.

TCL forecasts its sales of LCD TVs may reach 18 million sets in 2009.

"We aim to maintain our overall overseas sales in 2009 at the same level as last year, while keeping a double-digit growth in our mainland business," Li said.

Shares of TCL Multimedia Technology, TCL's Hong Kong-listed TV unit, advanced 2.56 percent, or HK$0.003, to close at HK$0.12 yesterday, while TCL Communication Technology finished up 6.15 percent, or HK$0.004, at HK$0.069.

(HK Edition 01/23/2009 page16)