Information Industry Develops Rapidly in Western ChinaThe information industry has developed at a rapid pace in the western region of China, Wu Jichaun, minister of information industry, said Saturday in Chengdu.Addressing the on-going Western Forum of China, Wu said, the western region has set up a modern telecommunications network. The combined switchboard capacity of mobile phones is 13 million. Program-controled phones account for 48 percent of the region's total telephones in service. He said, the western region has built optical fiber cables connecting Xi'an with Urumqi, and Lanzhou with Lhasa. Of the country's 18 cables, 12 are linked with the western region. Sichuan, Shaanxi and Guizhou provinces and Chongqing Municipality have developed a group of key high-tech enterprises and backbone enterprises in the information industry. He encouraged the western region to speed up and perfect the construction of infrastructure facilities for the information industry, and to expand the use of information technology, so as to improve information access in the region. He also called on the western region to work out more preferential policies to absorb both domestic and overseas technologies and funds into the region. |
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