The domestically-listed Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd., a leading TV manufacturer in China, started a production facility in Czech yesterday, company sources confirmed today.

The project is the first overseas production base wholly owned by a Chinese home electrical appliance enterprise.

The project cost US$10 million, involving a total workshop space of 10,000 square meters and a designed annual production capacity of one million sets. Most of the products will be flat-panel and high-definition TV sets.

The company sources revealed when conditions are ready, the project would be expanded to produce air conditioners, refrigerators, cell phones and set-top boxes, so as to localize all Changhong products in Europe.

Changhong has launched production projects in Indonesia, Australia, Czech and the Republic of Korea, and business outlets in more than one dozen countries and regions, including the United States, France and Russia.

Changhong is striving to make overseas sales account for 30-50 percent of its total sales income by 2010.