Agilent Forms Chinese Joint Venture To Manufacture Test Equipment

Agilent Technologies Inc. has signed an agreement with China's Chengdu Qianfeng Electronics Ltd. Corp. to jointly develop electronic test equipment for the Chinese market.

Chengdu Qianfeng Electronics manufactures electronic measurement and test equipment for communications, household and commercial energy management, electronic machinery and real estate development and trading. With the joint venture, dubbed Agilent-Qianfeng Electronics Technologies (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Agilent will tap into China's $200 billion electronics industry, which is growing at 20% annually. It is expected that 250 million mobile phone handsets a year will be manufactured in China by 2006.

"The electronics industry is growing quickly in China, and forming a joint venture with a company there allows us to serve customer needs locally in a focused way," the joint venture's newly-named president and general manager Max Yang said in a statement. "Agilent is a global company, and this is part of our global test and measurement strategy."

Before his appointment to the new company, Yang was vice president of China business development for Agilent's Electronic Products and Solutions Group. Dick Chang, another former Agilent vice president, will be Agilent-Qianfeng Electronics Technologies' chairman. The announcement follows the creation of Agilent's China Holding Co. on January 25.