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

[reuters] 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.

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