China's booming information industry is expected to maintain its
robust health in the coming years, according to a senior government
official.
The added value generated by the information industry is
forecast to hit 2.6 trillion yuan (US$333 billion) by 2010,
accounting for 10 percent of the country's GDP (gross domestic
product), according to Lou Qinjian, deputy chief of the Ministry of
Information Industry (MII).
That compares to 7.2 percent in 2005 and 4 percent in 2000.
"The information industry has become a pillar industry of
China's national economy," Lou said, adding that a continued boom
in the coming years would lay the foundations for China to become
an information and communications technology (ICT) powerhouse.
According to a blueprint jointly issued by the MII and the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), revenues from
the country's ICT industry are expected to grow by 17.6 percent
annually to reach 10 trillion yuan (US$1.28 trillion) by 2010.
The telecoms industry is expected to play a vital role in
maintaining the rapid growth of the overall information
industry.
The blueprint forecast that the country would have 1 billion
telephone users by 2010, including 400 million fixed-line telephone
subscribers and 600 million mobile phone users.
According to statistics released by the MII yesterday, China had
369 million fixed-line users and 467 million mobile phone
subscribers by the end of January.
The growth in the number of fixed-line subscriptions is
apparently slowing due to the increasingly mobile lifestyle in the
country.
In January, the country's fixed-line operators signed up 1.03
million users, while there were 6.32 million newly added mobile
phone subscribers.
With voice services increasingly going mobile, the government is
expected to soon award fixed-line telephone operators China Telecom
and China Netcom with licenses to move into the mobile telecoms
market, which should boost mobile phone penetration in the country,
industry analysts said.
The number of Chinese Internet users is expected to reach 200
million by 2010, with the penetration hitting 15 percent, according
to the blueprint.
Under the definitions laid out in the blueprint, Internet users
refer to those who spend at least one hour on the Web each
week.
According to the China Internet Networks Information Center
(CNNIC), a quasi-government organization, China had 137 million
Internet users by the end of last year, an increase of 23.4 percent
year-on-year.
The number of broadband users hit 90.7 million by 2006, up 41.1
percent year-on-year, while about 17 million mobile phones users
now use their handsets to access the Internet, CNNIC said.
(China Daily March 2, 2007)