The statistics were announced by Wu Jichuan, Chinese minister of information industry, in a speech delivered at Sino-ASEAN Symposium on Information and Telecom Technology which opened Tuesday in Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province.

ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

According to Wu, China has spent 800 billion yuan (about US$96.4 billion) in the construction of telecom infrastructure in the past five years and the country now has a telecom network supported by technologies ranging from fiber-optic, digital microwave, satellite, computer-controlled switchboards, mobile and digital telecom, to Internet.

The country has also made remarkable progress in information technology, said Wu, adding it is now capable of producing technological equipment with China's own intellectual property in fields such as computers, systematic integration, information treatment and application technology, digital and computer-controlled switchboards, optic telecommunications, and the third-generation mobile telecommunications.

The progress in basic network and technological equipment has markedly advanced the development of the national economy and informatization of society.

To date, more than 100 applied information networks have been set up throughout the nation, involving such sectors as finance, customs, taxation and foreign trade.

E-business has also been expanding rapidly across the country, while various kinds of information application programs like long-distance education, medical care and on-line media have mushroomed.

(Xinhua 04/10/2001)