The sale of software and information technology products in China is forecast to reach some US$25.3 billion this year, an increase of 30 percent compared to 2003, the Ministry of Information Industry has said.

Statistics from the ministry showed that the sales hit some US$19.3 billion (160 billion yuan) in 2003, up 45 percent year on year, making an annual increase of 36 percent from 2000 to 2003.

The research and development of software and system integration has made rapid development in the past years. China now boasts 8,582 software enterprises, with 18,000 kinds of products and has also set up six software bases including in Beijing and Shanghai.

China's software export rose to US$1.8 billionin 2003, which was 4.5 times that of 2000.

(China Daily January 25, 2004)