IT Sector Leads Industrial GrowthThe manufacturing of information and telecommunication products has become the biggest pillar industry of China, accounting for 8.5 percent of the total sales of industrial products in the country in the first 10 months this year.According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released here today, the sector saw a sales of 556.4 billion yuan over the period, 32.1 billion yuan more than that of the power industry, China's second biggest industrial sector. The NBS said that during 1990-1999, the IT sector experienced an annual growth of 32.1 percent in output, far exceeding the 14.2 percent average for all industrial sectors. According to the NBS, the sector contributed 2.5 percentage points to the growth of industrial value added over the first 10 months of this year, far exceeding that made by other industrial sectors. Despite a nearly 20 percent drop in the average price of information and telecommunication products in the past 10 years, the sector gained a profit of 30.75 billion yuan in 1999, surpassing the power industry to become the most profitable industrial sector in the country. IT Output Expected to Double in Five YearsThe output of China's information industry is to double in the next five years to account for 5 percent of the nation's GDP.It was announced by Wu Jichuan, minister of the information industry, at the Symposium on Information Society on Friday, to mark 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Finnish diplomatic ties. |
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