China's ZTE expects export growth to pick up-chairman

SHENZHEN, April 16 (Reuters) - ZTE Corp (0763.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (000063.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research), China's No.2 telecommunications equipment maker, said it expects overseas sales growth to pick up this year after a sluggish 2009, amid an ongoing export drive as 3G sales remain flat in its home market.

ZTE said revenue jumped 36 percent to 60.3 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) in 2009, following a 3G spending binge in China. But its international sales rose by a more modest 11.3 percent to 29.9 billion yuan, accounting for just under half of its total revenue.

"This year we hope exports will grow faster than last year," Chairman Hou Weigui, one of ZTE's founders, told Reuters on Friday, in his first interview with a foreign wire service.

He predicted that faster growth in exports would push foreign sales back above half of ZTE's total this year, after the figure slipped below 50 percent last year as foreign markets pulled back during the global downturn, and China spent more as its companies built 3G networks.

Last December, China's telecommunications regulator said domestic investment in 3G systems reached $21 billion in 2009. Hou, whose company won about 36 percent of China's 3G contracts, said he expects 3G spending in China to stay roughly the same this year. SHENZHEN, April 16 (Reuters) -

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