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Jan 5, 2010, The just arrived year 2011 has special significance to China's fiber optics industry as the beginning of another new 10 years. At this moment, we have to look ahead further to see what we can achieve in the coming 10 years.

The industry expanded quickly from no more than 10 companies in the last fiber optics bubble period into hundreds of companies of today. Although fiber optics market went down deeply after the bubble, above 80% percent of the companies founded in that period have survived. Several of them even went public including Accelink, O-net, Sun&sea etc. Technologically, we can manufacturer laser diode chip, fiber perform rod, 10Gbps transceivers and many other high tech products now. 10 years ago, Huawei just began its optical communication R&D work, now it has gained the No. 1 market share in this discipline of the world. Before year 2000, only Shenzhen, Wuhan and a few other cities have fiber optics enterprises. Now even a small city in central province can have a fiber optics enterprise. The most important, 10 years ago, FTTH in China is still a dream. Now according to many marketing research company, China has been one of the most important FTTH markets around the world.

The year 2011 is the first year for China's national twelfth five year plan. The all country has entered a new construction period. Under this background, fiber optics industry needs also a new plan. The last 10 years not only gives the industry a good base but also impose many questions.

For the coming 10 years, first, we are expecting a more healthy market, a fully free competitive market. In today's China, the telecom market is still under monopoly situation. Compared to 3 big telecom service providers, cable TV service providers are very week. There are no local utility providers who can provide telecom service in China. In equipment side, Only Huawei, ZTE and Fiberhome can be competitive. They set up strictly purchasing criteria for their component suppliers. In China's market, hundreds of component suppliers have to endure the monopoly policy of the purchasers. They face big hurdles on product price, money returning etc. Even in overseas market, they still face obstacles of brand, distribution channel etc. All this can not be easily solved by enterprises themselves. China's government needs to make big improvement on this.

For the coming 10 years, second, we hope China's entrepreneurs to step further upside. They need to invest more on R&D, on brand marketing. 10 years ago, most entrepreneurs have backgrounds on engineering or sales. Today's entrepreneurs usually have higher education, wider international view and professional background. Many of them have MBA education background. Today's China is in the trend to transform from low level economic development to high level development, from low profit product manufacturing to high profit product manufacturing. In accordance to this transform, China's fiber optics enterprises also need this transformation.

For the coming 10 years, what we expect most is that people in this industry can have a better life. In the last 10 years, we have seen many people left this industry, many others entered this industry. Today, talented employees have been the most important asset of any fiber optics companies. Headhunting becomes very difficult in this industry. But compared to other industries, the fiber optics industry is far less the most attractive industry. Employees in this industry have to struggle facing the high price level of today's China. How to make them more happy will decide how fast we can march ahead in the next 10 years.

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