China telecom co plans R&D centre in Bangalore

Charting out an aggressive strategy for India, Chinese telecommunication equipment company ZTE Corporation on Friday said it expects to set up a research and development centre in Bangalore by the year-end, and has also decided to establish a manufacturing unit in the country.

"We wish to set up a research and development unit in India. The proposal is being worked out, and we hope to have the centre before the end of this year," Ye Wei Min, vice president of ZTE Coporation, said in New Delhi.

Min said that the new unit would be based in Bangalore but did not divulge the investment plans.

He said that the company has also decided to set up a manufacturing unit in the country.

"May be it will be a joint venture or we will undertake it independently. Broadly the facility would be focused on optical communications equipment and GSM and CDMA network equipment. But the specific product manufacturing will depend on the demand from the Indian market," Min said.

Eventually, the unit could also become a manufacturing base for South Asian market, he said.

ZTE currently develops and manufactures telecom equipment for fixed, mobile data and optical network, intelligent networks and next generation networks as well as mobile phones.