We knew the Chinese economy is booming, but now, IDTechEx is saying that China "has become the world's largest market for RFID" by value.

In 2007, the spend on RFID in East Asia will be $2.7 billion of $4.96 billion spent globally. The majority of this - $1.9 billion - is just in China. This is because of a peak in delivery of contactless national identification cards in China prior to the 2008 Olympics, reports IDTechEx, an independent research company.

About $1.65 billion is being spent on 300 million of these cards plus their associated systems being delivered in 2007 out of a project commitment of $6 billion, the largest of any RFID project in the world.