BEIJING - China needs to develop its own national standard for the fast-growing mobile payment industry, expert said on Thursday.

"It is essential for Chinese operators and service providers to put in place a unified national standard on its own," said Wang Lijian, chief engineer of China Electronic Standardization Institute, on the Mobile Payment Leaders Forum in Beijing.

With the development of 3G technology and mobile Internet, the mobile payment market is projected to reach 100 billion yuan by the end of 2011, an increase of more than 130 percent from a year earlier.

Wang said Chinese operators oppose turning into foreign standards. "Once we employ their standard, there would be no way for us to take a leading position in this industry worldwide, and we will be following the foreign counterparts forever."

Wang expressed his confidence in the development of a national standard, as China doesn't lack the technology and engineers.