The Walt Disney Co. was planning a range of projects in China, including a theme park on the mainland, incoming chief executive Robert Iger said.

Iger's comments come about two months before the Sept. 12 launch of the US$3.6 billion Hong Kong Disneyland, the company's second resort in Asia after Japan.

Disney said last week it would not open a second theme park in China before 2010. The company said earlier it was weighing a theme park for Shanghai.

Disney forecasts about 10 million visitors at its Hong Kong park every year, which will make the development a key to the company's future expansion in China.

“Our primary targets would be development of a park on the mainland, launching the Disney Channel and building our presence on new media platforms, such as broadband and mobile phones,” said Iger. “And, of course, more Disney movies.”

Iger said earnings from Disney's movies were modest in China, citing ticket pricing, the relatively small number of theater screens and the “fairly limited” split of revenue for studios.

China's 1.3 billion people include 290 million under the age of 14, Disney's prime audience, presenting the company with a potentially huge market, the U.S. magazine Time said.

Unlike his predecessor, outgoing chief executive Michael Eisner, Iger had made overseas expansion a priority, the magazine said. He had visited China several times, met senior government leaders and even seen a movie at a Shanghai theater, the magazine said.

Construction on Disney's Hong Kong theme park and resort, which was announced in 1999, began in January 2003.

(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies July 12, 2005)