VI-13 Question: The software industry has become a strategic industry with development priority. What is the current performance of the software industry? Compared with other countries, what are the features of Chinese software exports? What is the development goal of the software industry in the next few years?

A: In recent years, the Chinese software industry has developed fast with the help of various policy support from the government. Industrial structure and distribution has been reshuffled rapidly with increasing number of varieties. The steady growth of software exports has become an important factor driving the rapid growth of this industry. Statistics show that so far, China has established 11 software bases, six software export bases, and 172 key national software production companies. In 2006, the sales revenue of China's software industry increased 23 percent compared with that of the previous year. The software export volume increased to US$3.59 billion in 2005 from a mere US$750 million in 2001, up 50 percent year on year. Software for embedded systems has become a major export product, reaching US$2.87 billion. Japan, the United States, European and Southeast Asian countries and regions are major destinations for the Chinese exports..

The features of Chinese software exports are:

First, China has formed a group of software export companies in six software export bases. Their experience in exploring the international market has been enriched with increasing R&D ability and quality management. Meanwhile, altogether 27 software companies have reached the top international certification level, which has further boosted the rapid development of software exports.

Second, software with independent intellectual property rights has become a new export growth driver, for instance, the CAD software package, the Chinese character typesetting system by Founder Group and the enterprise management software by UFIDA Software Co. Ltd.

Third, the software outsourcing industry is growing fast and grabbing increasing market share. The business has been extended from the Japanese market to the European and American markets. In 2005, the total revenue from the software outsourcing business reached US$170 million, jumping 60 percent compared with the previous year. It made up 4.7 percent of the total software export from the 0.9 percent in 2001.

In the next five years, the world software and information service outsourcing business will become larger and larger, providing a golden opportunity for Chinese companies. China will greatly promote its software quality and its goal is to guide the software industry by market demand, to achieve the very best of market value, to promote joint participation of software companies, traditional companies, information product manufacturing companies and Internet value-added service companies as well as other research institutes, so as to build a software industrial chain with Chinese characteristics to satisfy demands from at home and abroad.

(China.org.cn)