BEIJING: German giant Siemens AG, among China’s largest foreign employers, is betting its mainland businesses from high-tech trains and CAT scanners to energy saving technologies will continue to grow strongly.

“I am confident that in the years to come, we will be able to grow substantially faster in China than Siemens’ average worldwide growth,” Richard Hausmann, chief executive of the firm’s China operations, told Reuters.

Siemens expects its China revenues to grow about 20 percent this year, about the same pace of growth that rivals such as General Electric Co, the world’s second most valuable company, are forecasting.

While Asia accounts for only 15 percent of Siemens’ global sales, and China is responsible for a tiny 3 percent of GE’s global revenue, those figures are set to rise.

Major events such as the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai are pushing Beijing to modernise quickly with the help of companies like Siemens.

A group led by German steel firm ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens is in talks with China to build a 160 km (100 miles) magnetic levitation train track from Shanghai to Hangzhou, which Beijing wants to be completed by the start of the Expo.

“The ideal situation is the Hangzhou extension would be ready for Expo 2010,” Hausmann said. Chinese media has said the talks are being slowed by technology transfer requirements that Beijing insists on.

China innovation: Siemens earmarked 10 billion yuan for China investment from 2004-09, and could increase that if needed. “If it makes sense to invest more, we would not be shy about going back to Germany and ask for more investment,” Hausmann said.

About a tenth of that is being spent on a new 30-storey China headquarters in Beijing, a move necessitated by the rapid growth. “Our offices in Beijing are a little scattered right now because we grew so fast,” said Hausmann.

While China is a huge potential market for Siemens, it also produces innovation and new products. The firm employs 2,500 people working in six research and development centres in China.

“Our R and D people here in China are working on not just the products of tomorrow, but the products for the day after tomorrow,” Hausmann said, pointing to a CAT scanner that was introduced last year and which was developed and made in China.

“It is very successful in China, but we are also exporting them.” The company has 250 orders for the sophisticated medical imaging device, more than half of them from overseas.

While the telecom equipment business will soon be transferred to a new venture formed with Nokia, it is also an area of great promise for Siemens.

The German firm, which employs 36,000 people in China including joint ventures, expects trials on a Chinese standard for a third generation (3G) wireless telecoms network to be completed by July. If the trials are successful, licences to build the pricey networks could be issued.

“The TD-SCDMA trials are looking pretty positive,” Hausmann said, without offering a guess as to when the licences would be awarded.

Siemens’ venture with China’s largest telecoms gear maker, Huawei Technologies Co to develop TD-SCDMA technology, is expected to benefit along with rivals such as Motorola from an estimated $12 billion in orders to build the networks.

Beijing is aiming to have 3G up and running for the Olympics, which experts say means licences must be awarded this year.