China’s technology sector is set for future growth, creating investment opportunities in the internet and mobile sectors, with improving operations management and supportive demographics, says South Korea’s Mirae Asset.

“For some time Chinese technology companies have been quietly monitoring US companies and learning from the sidelines and now their knowledge is being transformed into serious profit and growth potential. Technology companies are often run by experienced management teams who more often than not have gained an education and work experience outside China,” says Cong Li, manager of the firm’s China Sector Leader Equity Fund.

Both demographic changes and China’s one-child policy are supporting the technology sector. These only children have high demand for online social media to interact with friends, spending 2.7 hours a day logged on to the internet in China, compared to 1.2 hours in the UK and 30 minutes in India.

Li likes companies such as Tencent, a pioneering internet company which hosts QQ, the most popular free instant messaging computer programme in mainland China; Baidu, the “Chinese Google”; and Weibo, China’s most popular version of Twitter.  He also expects future growth in companies involved in 3G communications, such as the Apple iPhone distributor, China Unicom.