Ji Yunshi, governor of Jiangsu Province, made this prediction at the fourth plenary session of the Ninth People's Congress of Jiangsu Province, which opened yesterday in Nanjing.

Ji said the province has set a goal of 10 percent for its GDP growth rate for 2001, while its number of registered unemployed is to be kept below 3.5 percent.

"The development of the information industry and the application of information technology are the first things that need to be done to modernize," Ji stressed.

A total investment of 25 billion yuan (US$3 billion) will be put into the construction of information infrastructure in 2001, and the provincial government will continue to support the construction of the Jiangsu Software Park and the Suzhou Industrial Park, according to the work report Ji made at the congress.

The provincial government will also give support to 200 large-scale enterprises for their e-commerce development this year, and an additional 150,000 enterprises will be linked up to the Internet.

The province's software industry is expected to make a profit of 50 percent more than last year, while the information service industry is also expected to grow, expecting a 30 percent yearly growth rate. The information technology manufacturing industry is looking forward to a growth rate of 20 percent, the report said.

Investment in high-tech industries is another target the provincial government has set for 2001. An input of 4 billion yuan (US$482 million) will be injected into 50 high-tech projects, including the development of nanometer technology and the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.

The added value of high-tech industries will make up 19 percent of the total industrial added value this year, according to a report submitted to Jiangsu's Ninth People's Congress.

This report also said support for the development of high-tech and information industries is an important action being taken by the province to prepare for China's impending entry into the World Trade Organization. High-tech products will take up more than 20 percent of total exports in 2001.

The structure of export products will be adjusted to economic globalization, Ji said.

Enterprises in Jiangsu will explore new markets in Eastern Europe, Africa and South America while strengthening its traditional markets in Japan, North America and Europe.

The export volume of the province is expected to grow by 12 percent in the year.

Foreign investment will be preferred in high-tech industries, the restructuring of State-owned enterprises and infrastructure construction.

New ways to attract direct foreign investment will be tried, such as mergers and acquisitions, investment funds and security investments.

"Jiangsu will strive to take the lead in the realization of modernization by aiming higher for all-round development in the 10th Five-Year Plan period," said Ji.

During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), the province achieved an average annual GDP growth rate of 11.2 percent, and public revenue increased by an average of 19.8 percent per annum.

Foreign investment in Jiangsu amounted to US$32.5 billion in that period, more than double that of the Eighth Five-Year Plan period (1991-95).

The total value of exports in 2000 exceeded US$25 billion, an increase of 40 percent from 1999.

(China Daily 02/13/2001)