Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Nov. 1 / Trend D.Azizov /
Chinese ZTE corporation, the second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and mobile phones in China, and the Uzbek-Chinese Peng Sheng joint venture established an enterprise for implementation of the project on production of smartphones, tablet PCs and Internet set-top boxes in Uzbekistan, a source in government circles told Trend on Thursday.
An enterprise with designed capacity of up to five thousand units per year will be located on the production territory of the industrial park, created by Peng Sheng joint venture in 2011, in the Syrdarya region in the central part of the country.
The company plans to release the first trial production by late November, the agency's interlocutor said.
The mobile phones are expected to be cheap and have a high specification.
The source did not specify the cost of the project and the amount of ZTE's planned investment in the project. According to some experts on telecommunications technologies, investments will amount to five million dollars at least .
The diversified Peng Sheng joint venture with authorized capital of three million dollars was established on equal terms by China's Wenzhou Jinsheng Trade Co., Ltd and Uzbek Sinlong in early 2010.
Earlier, the plans to open assembly line of smartphones and tablet PCs were announced by representatives of HUAWEI Technologies Co. Ltd, one of China's leading companies in the field of telecommunications.
In February of this year, Indian Olive Telecommunication and Uzbektelecom national operator of Uzbekistan, signed the founding documents on establishment of OliveTelecom joint venture for the production of CDMA-450 standard smartphones.
The enterprise with designed capacity of up to five thousand units per year will be located in the Navoi free industrial economic zone (FIEZ). The commission of the enterprise is scheduled for the first half of 2013. The volume of investment in the first phase will amount to six million dollars.
Currently, the number of mobile subscribers in Uzbekistan exceeds 25 million, while the number of Internet users is 7.9 million, with over 4.27 million using mobile Internet.
