Chinas Telecommunications Reforms PDF Download

This dissertation, "The Reforms and Development of China's Telecommunications Sector in the Light of Its Accession Into the World Trade Organization" by Ching-man, Chan, 陳靜雯, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract China's telecommunications service sector was traditionally protected from both domestic and foreign competition. The sector was monopolized by the former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), which acted as both the regulator and the public operator. Foreign participation was also strictly prohibited. Two major rounds of reforms were initiated during the period 1993 and 1994, and during 1998 and 1999. The key reforms and development included the establishment of China Unicom in 1994, the formation of the Ministry of Information Industry (ME) in 1998, and the first breakup of China Telecom in 1999. The second breakup of China Telecom in 2002 was another significant development. A number of factors led to these reforms and development, namely the global trend of liberalization of the telecommunications service sector, the dissatisfaction with the monopoly, the government's desire to create a competitive market, and the need to comply with the World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. The research attempts to examine the possible impact of these reforms and development by studying the statistics of various aspects of the main operators and of the sector in the last decade. Any changes in a micro and/or macro perspective may be attributable to such reforms. Findings show a slowing growth of the sector in the past few years in terms of business volume, realized revenue, realized fixed asset investment; and the formation and growth of China Mobile, China Netcom, and China Unicom at the expense of China Telecom regarding the number of subscribers, operating revenue, realized fixed asset investment, and business volume. After accession into the WTO, it is anticipated that foreign participation in the sector will be active. However, this is not the case so far. It is expected that the domestic operators will continue to dominate the sector in the near future; at least until the WTO commitments are fully implemented. DOI: 10.5353/th_b2951901 Subjects: Telecommunication - Economic aspects - China Telecommunication policy - China Competition, International