China's information and telecommunication industry witnessed rapid growth in 2003, featuring rising efficiency and structural readjustment and product R&D, the Ministry of Information Industry announced in Beijing Tuesday.

With the speeding up of industrial reform, the proportion of computer-related products took up 33.6 percent of the whole industry, increasing from 27.3 percent the previous year, according to the ministry.

In the meantime, telecommunication products made the greatest contribution to the whole industry, with a total profit of 17.72 billion yuan (aboutUS$2.2 billion), accounting for 25 percent of the total.

The research and marketing capacity of the local enterprises and companies was strengthened, as the top five electronic product manufacturers, top 10 telecommunication product manufacturers and top 15 software developers have launched research centers or production lines in foreign countries, each with its overseas market revenue accounting for above 20 percent of its total revenue.

Since the environment to draw foreign investment was better constructed, foreign and overseas investment companies in the electronics sector totaled 4,026, about 23 percent of the whole industry. sales, profit, industrial added-value and exports of these companies all took up more than 50 percent of the whole industry.

Last year, China produced 48.3 million GSM cell phones and sold 47.392 million, which accounted for 30 percent and 29.5 percent of the total, respectively.

A total of 8,582 software companies with 18,000 registered products created 160 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion) of profit, which increased by 45 percent over 2002. Exports in software hit a record high of US$2 billion, up 33 percent.

Statistics showed sales of top 100 electronics companies reached 593.3 billion yuan (US$72.4 billion), up 21 percent over the previous year.

Apart from that, a fast growth was seen in China's coastal areas, as sales and profit of south China's Guangdong Province alone both were one third of the whole industry. 

(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2004)