China is expected to soon announce a set of enforcement rules to liberalize its licensing controls on the manufacture and sale of handsets, according to sources at Taiwan handset makers.

Although China's State Council decided in October 2007 to lift the licensing control, the ban was still in force due to a lack of enforcement rules, the sources noted.

However, the sources pointed out that officials from China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) held a meeting last week in Shenzhen to discuss details of the enforcement rules in order to facilitate the liberalization process.

Under the proposed enforcement rules, domestic and foreign handset makers or vendors will only be required to apply for permissions for the handsets they plan to introduce into the China market without an operating license, provided that their manufacturing facilities and products meet inspection and testing requirements and that the vendors guarantee the quality of their product and assure to provide after-sales services, the sources said.

Competition in the China handset market is expected to intensify following the implementation of the enforcement rules as domestic vendors who currently sell white-box handsets in China without a license will be able to legalize their operations under the new rules, the sources stated.