Ma Dexiu, head of the High Technology Industrial Development Department under the commission, said in the capital of central China's Hubei province that since the mid 1990s, technology-intensive sectors have escalated in terms of upgrading, scale and innovation.

The offical statistics he cited show that from 1995 to 2001, this industry maintained a growth rate of 20.23 percent, 11 percent higher than the total industry growth.

Even during the world information technology (IT) industry slump last year, China's high-tech industry, which relies heavily on IT, saw a year-on-year growth of 19 percent with a total output value of 2.27 trillion yuan (US$274 billion), said Ma.

By 2001, the industry's added value accounted for 3.28 percent of China's gross domestic product while the figure was 1.88 percent in 1995.

Meanwhile, exports of high-tech products soared during the last decade, said Ma, adding that the export value amounted to US$46.45 billion in 2001, more than 15 times of that in 1991.

He said the growth rate of the industry's exports last year was 25.4 percent, compared with the nation's total export volume growth rate of 6.8 percent.

Three major high-tech products export bases were developing, said Ma, noting the industry's total export volume from the southern Pearl River Delta area, the eastern Yangtze River Delta area and the northern Beijing and Tianjin area account for more than four-fifths of the country's total.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2002)