The Ministry of Information Industry said today that the country's total income from the telecom business is expected to reach 300 billion yuan this year, based on a hefty increase gained last year

In 1999 telecom business income jumped 24.6 percent year on year to 280.3 billion yuan, Minister Wu Jichuan said on the final day of a national information industry working conference in Beijing.

Wu said this year the ministry will make more efforts to restructure the industry, enlarge its business volume, increase exports and continue exploiting and making use of information resources.

Fixed asset investment in telecommunications this year is expected to rise to 200 billion yuan from last year's 151.8 billion yuan, according to the minister.

Under the ministry's plan for this year, new switchboards with a combined capacity of 20 million lines of fixed telephones will be installed, there will be an extra 18.5 million fixed telephone subscribers and an extra 250 billion mobile phone subscribers, and85 percent villages of the country will have telephone services.

Wu also said that he hopes the sales of the industry's manufacturing sector will reach 490 billion US dollars while exports reach 45 billion US dollars, an increase of 22 percent and 15 percent respectively from last year. (Xinhua)