The software and information technology market in China has
become a new growth point for the national economy, said Qu
Weizhi, vice-minister of information industry on Tuesday.
Qu said the software
industry should be given priority in developing countries
as a major method of increasing national strength.
Qu said these things
at a national meeting on the software industry held in the
city of Kunshan in Jiangsu Province. The two-day meeting ended
recently.
China's software
and information technology industry will grow by more than
30 percent annually for the coming five years, according to
the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), said Chen Chong, vice-director
of the software department of the Ministry of Information
Industry.
Domestic enterprises
produce 48 percent of the software used in China at present.
By the year 2005, the percentage should be 63, Chen said.
The industry has
grown at three times the speed of GDP (gross domestic product)
in the past five years. There are 1,500 enterprises engaged
in the development, sale and service of software at present,
involving 500,000 people.
Operation systems
and designing platforms, safety software, e-commerce application
systems and integrated circuits are the planned development
focuses for the next five years.
Exports of software
are also a priority for development.
Qu also urged the
construction of software parks. "Software parks would
be a focus for investment," Qu said. Qu urged the setting
up of venture capital funds for the software industry, encouraging
contributions from society and offering a channel for such
donations to the industry.
"But different
areas should make development plans according to local conditions
so that the same projects are not developed everywhere,''
Qu said.
A series of successful
software parks have been set up in the past five years, such
as those in Pudong of Shanghai, Dalian, Xi'an and Chengdu.
The parks produced 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) worth
of goods in 1999, 81 per cent of the total production value
for the whole of the industry in China.
Pudong Software
Park is planning to enter a second phase of construction to
meet demand from software companies. The park is also seeking
further investment and making plans to go public within the
year.
(People's Daily
04/13/2001)
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