By Pacnet Press Release

TAIPEI - Pacnet today unveiled its strategy to leverage its Taiwan operations and provide enhanced Greater China network connectivity to support the accelerating trade between Taiwan and China.

“With cross-strait trade on the rise, Pacnet recognizes the important role that our Taiwan operations play in addressing the needs of the Greater China market, a key focus area for us this year,” said Bill Barney, Chief Executive Officer of Pacnet at a media briefing in Taipei, Taiwan.

Latest figures from China's Ministry of Commerce (Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao Affairs) indicate that cross-strait trade in 2008 reached US$129.22 billion up 3.8% from 2007. At the end of last year, China approved some 77,506 Taiwanese investments amounting to US$47.66 billion worth of direct investment from Taiwan.

“This promising increase in cross-strait trade is also reflected in the growing demand for network connectivity we observe between Taiwan and China,” noted Johnson Tsai, General Manager of Pacnet's Taiwan operations. “To address this demand, we will leverage our China equity joint venture, Pacnet Business Solutions (China), to provide services that will help Taiwanese businesses establish presence and grow business not only in China but within the Greater China region”.

 

Pacnet Business Solutions (China) is an equity joint venture (EJV) between Pacnet and Zhong Ren Telecom. Earlier this year, Pacnet increased its foothold in the China market with the addition of new Points-of-Presence (PoPs) in Dalian and Hangzhou. The new PoPs extends Pacnet's reach across China's most progressive cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as cover major cities in Guangdong province including Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen. Pacnet is also exploring expanding its presence to other key cities such as Tianjin, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Ningbo and Xiamen.

Pacnet Business Solutions (China) is the first foreign-owned telecommunications EJV in China with a permit for “cross-region telecommunications value added services”, which allows it to offer three value added services -Internet Data Center, Internet Access and Store and Forward services - in thirteen cities across China. It has also received the approval of China's Ministry of Commerce to add nationwide IP VPN services to its business connectivity portfolio.

Through ownership of the EAC-C2C subsea cable, Pacnet is able to offer high bandwidth and diverse connectivity options into Taiwan and China. EAC-C2C has landing stations in Pali, Danshui and Fangshan in Taiwan and Qingdao and Shanghai in China.