BEIJING, Mar 4 China's automobile exports will likely double this year, but labour rights

BEIJING, Mar 4 (Reuters) China's automobile exports will likely double this year, but labour rights in developed countries mean Chinese auto makers face better opportunities setting up shop in other developing markets, an automobile entrepreneur said on Sunday.

Within eight to 10 years, China could become the world's largest exporter of small to mid-sized cars, predicted Yin Mingshan, founder and head of the Lifan Group, China's top motorcycle maker.

China became a net vehicle exporter for the first time in 2005.

The following year, automobile exports nearly doubled to 300,000 units.

But while Chinese car makers such as Chery Automobile Co. or Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. have U.S. and European markets in their sights, Yin said labour laws could prove an obstacle preventing Chinese firms from buying Western car makers outright.

He spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a largely symbolic meeting of advisers from the business and civic spheres.

''There is one problem that's hard to solve -- that's the labour problem. For instance when SAIC bought Ssangyong, Ssangyong workers just never stopped striking,'' he said.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. owns 51 percent of Ssangyong Motor Co., whose unions have carried on a South Korean tradition of tough wage negotiations.

''So there is no problem buying foreign facilities for here or setting up in developing countries, but to start producing from the U.S. market, that's a rather big problem.'' Many Chinese auto makers, flush with cash and eager to emulate the global success of their Japanese and Korean brethren, have been pursuing overseas deals. Nanjing Automobile Group in 2005 took control of Britain's collapsed MG Rover and then announced plans for China's first car plant in the U.S.

Some Chinese firms are seen as potential bidders for DaimlerChrysler AG's troubled Chrysler Group.

The tall and cheerful Yin, who prides himself on his optimism, expects China's domestic car sales to grow by 30 percent to 40 percent this year. Car sales in China grew by just over 30 percent in 2006.

Yin expects Lifan's sales to grow 30 percent this year to 13.5 billion yuan (about $1.74 billion) from 10.4 billion yuan in 2006.

China has a long way to go before car ownership reaches the rates common in the West, Yin cautioned.

''I think it will be hard to reach the stage when every family has one or two cars, even though we will definitely see average car ownership moving up. I think that in eight to 10 years there will be one car for every two families in China.'' WORLD VIEW Lifan made headlines last year when it bid to buy a Brazilian plant that made BMW engines, planning to dismantle it after 2007 and bring it to its home base in Chongqing, in Southwest China.

But the Brazilian government is insisting the plant stay in Brazil, Yin said.

It began making cars in China early in 2006. Late that year, its $30 million joint venture in Vietnam began assembling the Lifan 520 sedan for sale to taxi fleets.

This year, it has entered a memorandum of understanding for two joint venture auto plants in Egypt that would produce 30,000 to 50,000 cars a year, Yin said.

Although details have yet to be finalized, Yin said Lifan would provide technology and equipment and a ''rather small'' amount of financing, with most of the capital coming from Egyptian partners whom he declined to name.

Production will begin in the fourth quarter of this year at a 100,000 car-per-year joint venture in Russia, to which Lifan is also contributing technology and equipment.

Lifan plans to begin producing motorcycles in Turkey by June, to avoid that country's import tariffs. The $50 million plant would also produce for the European market, which accounts for about 10 percent of its exports.

Yin said his company plans to list overseas, possibly this year.

''I used to say you should wait and find a good partner before isting, just like in a marriage where an older and established man will get a better bride. Now I see I was wrong -- in fact there are lots of partners out there, and marrying early makes it that much easier to find another wife.'' REUTERS DKS RN1637