East Province Stresses Information TechnologiesEast China's Zhejiang Province has laid out an ambitious plan within the next five years to promote its information industry and training of professionals, according to an ongoing information meeting.The provincial government issued Thursday its plan for encouraging development of software and integrated circuit industries. The plan provides the industries with preferential policies in financing, tax abatements and exemptions, exports and procurement and the training and recruitment of professions. In the next five years, a total of 1.2 million information professionals are expected to be trained, 200,000 of whom will be engaged in software technicians, according to Chai Songyue, governor of the province. The government also expected that universities in the province will increase the number of students in the information sector, Chai said, adding that information basics and technical rudiments must be taught in elementary and middle schools. Zhejiang University, China's largest after it incorporated three other local universities in Zhejiang, has decided to establish a software college this year. In a newly released government document, the province is going to encourage enterprises to cooperate with foreign software companies in research, development and training. In the past five years, the province spent a total of 1.5 billion yuan (181 million US dollars) to upgrade traditional industries through promoting the of use of information technologies in industries like machinery, electronics, petrochemical, medicine, building materials, silk and commerce. Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology has been used in 80 percent of the research and design institutes and in large- and medium-size enterprises, largely raising the input-output ratio to 1:4.8, according to statistics. Other technologies like CIMS (computer integrated manufacturing system) and MIS (manage information system) have also been extensively employed, helping provincial enterprises save time, lower the labor strain and raise productivity, according to the meeting report. |
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