China's Information Industry System Contributes More to State EconomyChina's Information Industry has established an industrial system with a relatively complete array of specialized departments, a fairly large scale and high level, which is making ever-greater contribution to the national economy and playing an ever-stronger role in promoting the development of other industries.On the eve of the convocation of the 16th World Computer Conference, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry told the journalist during an interview that in the 1990s, China's information industry has developed at an average annual growth rate three times that of the national economy in the same period. The average annual growth rate has consistently stood at above 20 percent. For example, the total production value of electronic products manufacturing industry (including software industry) surged from 245.7 billion yuan in 1995 to 778.2 billion yuan in 1999. The gross telecommunication business volume increased from 98.9 billion yuan in 1995 to 211.3 billion yuan in 1999. Information infrastructure construction has developed to a considerable scale. The official said that by the end of 1999, China had constructed over 1 million km optical cables. The total capacity of program-controlled telephone switchboards had reached 160 million lines. The number of telephone subscribers had totaled 152 million nationwide, 43.24 million are mobile phones users. The scale of fixed telephone network ranked second and mobile phone network third in the world. There had been 80 million wired television users, China's television broadcasting network had become the largest in the world. Reports say that the production and development capability of electronic information products manufacturing and software industries have been obviously enhanced. In 1999, China produced 35.28 million color TV sets, 3.97 million PCs, 39.89 million program-controlled exchange lines, 23 million mobile phones and 4.1 billion integrated circuits. The sales volume of software reached 41.5 billion yuan. Internet has developed at high speed. By the end of June this year, China had had 6.5 million computers connected to the internet and owned 16.9 million users who are linked to the network by special lines or by dialing. There have been more than 15,000 Chinese websites in the domestic network. The Internet has been applied in a wider sphere from general information browsing to the network economy with more creative value. He added that China's information promotional work is progressing smoothly. Remarkable results have been achieved in the State's major informationization projects, such as "Gold Bridge", "Gold Card" and "Gold Tax" projects, which have played a good exemplary driving role: E-business and informationization of the enterprises and cities have attracted extensive attention and are making great strides. |
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