China's Electronic Information Sector Reports Strong Growth

China's electronic information sector has hit its target for the year two months before the start of the new millennium.

The high growth rate will continue for the foreseeable future, the report quoted a senior official with the Ministry of Information Industry as saying at a forum in Beijing Wednesday.

Li Zhiming, director of the Department of Enterprises Restructuring and Operation, said the electronic information sector has generated a total output of 809.9 billion yuan£¨US$97.8 billion£©in the January and October period which already surpassed the full year target of 800 billion yuan£¨US$96.62 billion£©. "The increase of basic infrastructure investment, information flow and the western-development strategy have played major roles in fueling growth," Li said.

The most significant growth areas are personal computers and telecommunications products, while traditional electronic products like color TVs and VCD players have suffered negative growth in the period, according to Li.

The industry is also suffering from insufficient provision of components.

Domestic electronic component manufacturers still focus on low- end products.

The United States and Japan are still China's major export destination for electronic information products , while exports to South America and Russia have also contributed to exports of 150.55 billion yuan US$18.18 billion£©in the first 10 months.

Although exports reported a 44.4 percent growth compared with the same period of last year, the growth rate has already slowed down, Li said.

Li said the forecast for the coming year was that market size for electronic information productions will be around 1.3 trillion yuan (US$157 billion£©.

The ministry has set the target for the electronic information products sector with a total output value of 1.11 trillion yuan£¨US$134 billion£©in 2001.

Mobile phones, software , microelectronics and network products will be the major components of the growth engine.

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period £¨2001-2005£©, the public telecom network will double in size, with 200 million and 300 million fixed-line and mobile phone users respectively, he said.








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