The 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.
According to Wu,
China's information industry is expected to maintain an annual
growth rate of around 20 percent in the coming five years,
which is outlined in the country's 10th Five-Year Plan for
social and economic development during the 2001-2005 period.
Meanwhile, China
is expected to become the world's leader in terms of telephone
network capacity and the number of subscribers, Wu added.
He said the Chinese
government places great importance on the development of the
information industry, a pillar industry of the economy and
a catalyst for the country's social and economic development.
In the next five
years, China will focus on building infrastructure for a national
information network, accelerating the development of information
technology (IT) and IT industry and pushing forward the application
of information technology in all sectors of the economy.
Statistics show
that during China's ninth five-year plan period from 1995
to 2000, output in its IT manufacturing industry witnessed
an increase from 245.7 billion yuan (US$29.6 billion) in 1995
to 778.2 billion yuan (US$93.8 billion) in 1999.
During the same period, China's telecommunication industry
witnessed an increase in output from 98.9 billion yuan (US$12
billion) in 1995 to 211.3 billion yuan (US$25.4 billion) in
1999.
From September
this year, China's telephone subscribers topped 200 million.
(Xinhua 10/28/2000)
|
