China's information industry saw a growth of 29 percent in the
first four months of this year despite the outbreak of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS), sources with the Ministry of
Information Industry (MII) said in Beijing Friday.
MII statistics for this period show sales of the manufacturing
sector of the information and electronics industries totaled 452.4
billion yuan (US$54.7 billion), up 28.9 percent over the same
period of last year. Software products sales were 45 billion yuan
(US$5.4 billion), up 22 percent.
The industry turned in profits totaling 17.1 billion yuan (US$2.1
billion), up 21 percent year on year, and recorded imports and
exports totaling 72.44 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion), up 51.5
percent. Exports reached 36.25 billion yuan, up 45.5 percent.
A
MII official said the information industry was still a major
driving force in Chinese industries, as its growth rate was 11.8
percentage points higher than the national industrial growth
rate.
He
said the outbreak of SARS boosted on-line business, teaching, and
governmental administration, which was obviously an impetus for the
computer products market. By the end of April, sales of personal
computers and displays increased by 60.1 percent and 53 percent
respectively over the same period of last year, with the proportion
of laptops in PC sales amounting to 20.2 percent, up from 7.2
percent last year.
Chinese telecommunications operators invested more in enlarging the
holding volume of the network since the end of last year, which
lifted the growth rate of program-controlled switchboards to above
22.4 percent. With the revitalizing of the international market,
exports of cell phones accounted for 51.4 percent of sales, nearly
10 percentage points higher than last year.
By
the end of April, output and sales of China-made cell phones
totaled 14 million and 13.9 million sets respectively, both
doubling over the same period of last year. Software played a more
important role in the industry, as exports hit a record high of
US$400 million.
(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2003)