ZTE Corp said yesterday it will invest 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) to establish a manufacturing and research industrial base in Heyuan City of south China's Guangdong Province.

The country's biggest public telecom equipment maker is looking to expand in the overseas market, and will boost its handset and equipment business through the new facility.

ZTE and Heyuan government inked an investment agreement to construct a research and development center covering a 2-million-square-meter area in the Heyuan High-tech Development Zone. The base will take six years to build, Shenzhen-listed ZTE said in a statement to the stock exchange.

"We chose Heyuan because of its good investment environment and mature local handset industry," ZTE Chairman Hou Weigui said in a statement published on the Heyuan government website.

The agreement, however, is still pending approval from ZTE shareholders.

Heyuan City is the biggest provincial-level handset manufacturing base in Guangdong, according to the government website.

ZTE will carry out research on the latest mobile phone and telecom equipment, for both domestic and overseas markets, at the new Heyuan base, analysts said.

ZTE's share price jumped 3.05 percent to 20.94 yuan yesterday.

Meanwhile, ZTE and Three have launched a low-cost Android phone in the United Kingdom, the first 3G Android phone costing less than 100 pounds (US$151).