China will form a stronger IT industry by increasing the production capacity of new electronic equipment parts and establishing more competitive conglomerates, according to a recent national symposium.

At the two-day meeting, officials from the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology agreed that the industry must upgrade IT equipment and form conglomerates in the next five to ten years.

Qu Weizhi, vice minister of the information industry, told the meeting that China's IT industry has developed a considerable production capacity during the past decade. The sector is expected to leap ahead at an annual rate of 25 percent in the next five years with the soaring demand from the fast-growing automobile and telecommunications industries, he said.

Qu said that the industry's development strategy will give more importance to forming competitive IT firms, such as the Fenghua Group, to encourage technological upgrading and market exploration for new products.

The company in south China's Guangdong Province has become the largest provider of porcelain capacitors, resistors and inductors in China. With 70 percent of its products for export, it recorded a sales worth 1.5 billion yuan last year.

China will grant digital and Internet equipment producers more preferential policies to accelerate a smooth transfer of intellectual research products.