For foreign investors with patience, flexibility and focus, the potential is huge.
All indications point to rapid improvements in the overall business environment.
The past few years have shown that China's infrastructure can catch up quickly, and in some ways will surpass that of the rest of the world. Although e-commerce constitutes a small percentage of online activity, with only 14 percent of users saying they'd made online purchases, the figure is five times that of twelve months before. In addition, close to half of all users expressed interest and enthusiasm for online stores, schools, and brokerage services, which indicates their growing savvy and comfort level with the Internet. An official from China's Ministry of Information Industry announced recently that China will become the largest telephone market in the world in five years. He said that China now has 120 million fixed-line phone users, with more than 18 million registered in the first six months this year, and 60 million mobile phone subscribers, including 16 million registered in first half of this year.