The Chinese manufacturer of Philips mobile handsets is forging ahead with expansion plans in the "land of opportunity" in Thailand next year.

Sean Hughes, senior design director of Philips DesignAsia, shows off two of the company's latest models yesterday in Bangkok.

After being a joint venture with Royal Dutch Philips Electronics Co for a decade, Shenzhen Sang Fei Consumer Communications took over the global mobile phone business of Philips in 2007.

"We are now stepping up efforts to aggressively promote the Philips handset brand in the Thai market, with a sales revenue target of 200 million baht in 2009," said Cheong Gim Hwa, senior sales director of Shenzhen Sang Fei Consumer Communications, a subsidiary of China Electronics Corporation (CEC).

"We aim to become the dominant mobile handset maker in Thailand within three years," he said yesterday.

Mr Cheong said Thailand was Southeast Asia's third largest market, behind Indonesia and Vietnam. Of the company's total earnings, China contributed half of the total, European countries 35% and the Asian region 5%.

Philips now has a 2% market share in China and a 5% share in Russia. The company has so far established its brand presence in seven countries. It has a manufacturing plant in Shenzhen with annual capacity of 15 million units.

Despite the current poor economic situation, Mr Cheong is optimistic about the future, helped by new sophisticated designs and high-quality products.

Sean Hughes, senior design director of Philips Design Asia, said Philips was positioning its products' stylish design and premium quality, with long battery life in particular, under the concept of "sense and simplicity".

The company yesterday introduced three new mobile phones. The bar-type Philips Xenium X800 has a 2.8-inch touch screen and is priced at 9,990 baht. The folding Philips Xenium 9@9q features up to one month of standby time or eight hours of talk time and 22 hours of music playback, priced at 4,900 baht. The sliding Philips 298 features MP3 playback and costs 2,990 baht.