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Minister lauds competition
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Han Ximin
WU JICHUAN, China's information minister, offered disgruntled customers a hope for lower telecom charges by saying the ministry will, in future, allow the market to decide prices in the hitherto highly monopolized telecom industry.
In an interview on Wednesday, the outspoken minister admitted the long-awaited "fee cuts" last month, attacked by customers as "bogus", were just structural adjustments rather than outright reductions.
"We need to strike a balance among State tax revenue and the benefits of both telecom operators and consumers," said Wu, adding that the pricing scheme needs to be improved and the government will give way to the market in deciding telecom prices in the future.
As to the development of China's telecom industry, which has been listed by Premier Zhu Rongji as one of top monopolized sectors, Wu said the ministry is ready to admit competition to the industry after a new telecom company run by the railway ministry joined the other six operators in sharing the country's huge telecom market.
"China's telecom market is at initial stage and with the deepening of telecom system reform, regrouping will incessantly happen," Wu said.
The minister, who was attending the China-ASEAN symposium on information and telecom technology, said he supported the listing of qualified telecom operators on domestic stock markets.
He said that both China Telecom and China Unicom, which are already listed on overseas bourses, would benefit Chinese investors if they go public in China, because both firms are doing well.
Wu stressed that the stock market should not be used as a venue to bilk money out of investors.
Listed firms should behave responsibly, he said, adding telecom firms should introduce new management mechanisms after going public.
He jokingly said he knew nothing about the stock market, denying his remarks to clarify fee adjustments last November were meant to prop up share prices of China Telecom and Unicom on Hong Kong's stock market, which dropped sharply amid rumours of fee cuts but quickly recovered following Wu's clarification.
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