ASIA : The GSM Association (GSMA) announced today in Beijing that it would consolidate the efforts of its more than 600 mobile operator members to support China’s upcoming 3G roll out. The announcement came at the meeting of the Asian members of the GSMA Board of Directors where Mr. Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA, presented to Li Xiaoqiang, Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII), the Global and China 3G Development Declaration (Beijing Declaration).

The 7-point Declaration was signed by Mr. Robert Conway, CEO of the GSM Association, on behalf of the GSMA and its Asian Board members, advocates closer cooperation between GSMA’s member companies and their Chinese counterparts in the fields of research and development, investment, trade and service to ensure China’s 3G roll out is mutually successful.

“2004 will be a milestone year for the world’s wireless communications industry. Not only will we celebrate the one billionth GSM user, many countries and markets are expected to roll out 3G,” said Ehrlich. “We encourage telecom carriers and players in the 3G value chain to optimize their resources, maximize benefits of the massive economies-of-scale created by the open, nonproprietary GSM system and continue adding value through innovation to ensure a seamless and smooth upgrade from 2G to 3G and sustain the technology development of 3G.”

At the meeting, Huawei Technologies, China’s largest network solutions provider also announced its membership in the GSMA. China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, and China Unicom have already joined the Association, and both are represented on the Association’s Board.

“We warmly welcome Huawei into our global GSM family,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA. “China is already the largest single cellular market in the world with over 254.9 million mobile users, of which 236.9 million are GSM users. China’s success in developing 3G is critical not only to China itself, but also has a huge impact on the global wireless communications industry. GSMA is committed to bridging the gap between the world and China by providing business, technical and public policy services.”

Together with the Beijing Declaration, the Association announced its GSMA China office opening. Mr. Ming Louie, the former president of QUALCOMM, Greater China will represent the Association in Beijing. Mr Louie has over 25 years experience in telecommunications and was the co-founder of Globalstar and Mobile Radius.