China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. had accused ZTE Corp. of unfair competition in a recent deal to build a GSM network in Nepal, and had filed a complaint, the China Business News reported, citing unidentified sources.

"Huawei has filed complaints to the China Chamber of Commerce in Nepal, claiming ZTE's US$3.9 million bid for the national GSM network in Nepal in April was lower than actual production costs," the Shanghai-based paper quoted the source as saying. For the same bid, Huawei's proposal was US$12 million, the paper added.

ZTE also won a national CDMA network from Nepal Telecom last November with a bid of US$29 million against Huawei's US$42 million proposal. "It is very natural for companies to offer low prices on entering a country but as a dual-listed company in both China and Hong Kong, ZTE should not offer a price lower than production costs," said a ZTE official who declined to be named.

No one from Huawei Technologies was immediately available for comment.

ZTE Corp.'s overseas sales last year were around US$2.14 billion, accounting for 78.4 percent of its total sales of US$2.7 billion. Huawei Technologies' overseas sales hit US$2.28 billion, accounting for 40.86 percent of the total of US$5.58 billion.

(Shenzhen Daily June 10, 2005)