Major IT Growth ForeseenChina's information technology (IT) industry will double its size within five years to make the country a top telecom market and leading IT product maker worldwide, Wu Jichuan, the minister of information industry told a national IT forum Friday.The two legs of the IT industry, telecom and electronic product manufacturing, have become the most rapidly growing sectors and supporting pillars of the country's economic growth, Wu said. This annual forum of the Ministry of Information Industry, attracted representatives from all related government bureaux and leading IT companies. Wu said that year 2000 was the most significant year for the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000). During the year, China became the world's second biggest telecom market, in terms of both network capacity and number of subscribers. Telecom revenue reached 307.4 billion yuan (US$37.2 billion) in 2000, recording a 26.4 per cent growth rate compared with that of the previous year. Fixed-line telephone users increased by 35.6 million to reach 144 million and mobile telephone users doubled in number in the year to reach 85.26 million. National telephone coverage reached 20.1 per cent last year with 39 per cent of households in cities having fixed-line telephones and 6.7 per cent of the 1.25 billion Chinese having their own mobile phones. The electronic information product makers were not overshadowed by the outstanding performance of the telecom sector, with a total revenue of 580 billion yuan (US$70 billion), which represents a growth of 34 per cent over the previous year. Exports of electronic information products increased by 41 per cent to reach US$55.1 billion for the year. "The IT industry will maintain a 20 per cent growth rate through the coming five years," Wu said. He said the Ministry of Information Industry will help nurture a group of international conglomerates this year with three to four companies realizing total sales of 40 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion) and eight to 10 coming in at 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion). The ministry will also push for four or five electronic companies to go public abroad. Wu said he hoped one or two of them could make IPO (initial public offering) before the year is out. Wu also presented a blueprint for the country's IT industry in the 2001-05 period. Keeping a 20 per cent yearly growth rate, China will become the world leader in both the fixed-line and mobile telecom fields by the end of the period. Telephone coverage will reach 40 per cent with total telecom subscribers surpassing 500 million by the year 2005. Wu said by the year 2005, there will be 40 million computers connected to the Internet. Netizens will number 15 per cent of the total population, reaching 200 million. China had 22.5 million netizens by the end of year 2000, according to statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry. Wu said the revenue of the telecom and postal fields will reach 1,000 billion yuan (US$121 billion) by the year 2005. Exports of electronic information products will reach US$100 billion by 2005. Revenue from the electronic information product manufacturing sector will reach 1,500 billion yuan (US$181 billion) with income in the software field reaching 250 billion yuan (US$30.19 billion), Wu said. Source: China Daily |
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