Northeastern Province to Boost IT DevelopmentThe Provincial government of Liaoning in northeast China plans to invest some 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in the next five years to accelerate the development of its information technology industry.Most of the funds will go to the IT manufacturing and software industries, which have production values that are expected to account for about 13 percent of Liaoning's total industrial output value by the end of the 10th Five Year Plan (2001-2005) period. Statistics show that more than 110 local IT manufacturers reaped 33.12 billion yuan (US$4 billion) in gross output value last year, which was 8 percent of the province's total industrial output value, or 5.6 percent higher than the figure in 1995. The local software industry realized 4 billion yuan (US$482 million) in sales volume in 2000, making Liaoning one of China's top five most developed regions in the field. Technological innovation will be a priority task during the five-year period to upgrade six local traditional industries, including metallurgy, chemistry, machinery, power, automobile and medical equipment. Two key software zones in Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning, and Dalian, a port city in northeast China, will take the responsibility to develop more computer applications and network solutions. As a key task of Liaoning's IT updating efforts, an intranet system, part of Liaoning's bold blueprint for "E-government", is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2005, in a move to adopt on-line official business services in the party and government organizations of all levels in Liaoning. |
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