The world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, on Tuesday signed agreements with its customers China Mobile and PTAC in a deal worth more than Eur 2bn for the full year 2006.

In what is a major coup for the Finnish market leader, the group employed pomp and ceremony to celebrate the deal Which was attended by Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao and Finnish Premier, Matti Vanhanen.

The agreement with China Mobile relates to the purchase of GSM/GPRS network equipment from Nokia worth around Eur 580m. The agreement with the Chinese national mobile phone distributor PTAC relates to the purchase of mobile devices from Nokia worth at least Eur 1.5bn.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said: “The signing of these two important agreements is a milestone event for Nokia’s operations in China. We set up our operations more than 20 years ago with a handful of employees and today we employ over 6700 people in China. It is the single biggest market for Nokia, as well as one of the largest contributors to Nokia’s R&D, manufacturing and innovation.”

Nokia’s operations in China include two mobile phone manufacturing facilities, two network manufacturing facilities, and six R&D units focusing on both the Chinese and global markets. On September 1, 2006 Nokia announced that it is expanding its recently established 3G R&D center in Chengdu, Sichuan province.