It was announced by Wu Jichuan, minister of the information industry, at the Symposium on Information Society on Friday, to mark 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Finnish diplomatic ties.

According to Wu, China's information industry is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of around 20 percent in the coming five years, which is outlined in the country's 10th Five-Year Plan for social and economic development during the 2001-2005 period.

Meanwhile, China is expected to become the world's leader in terms of telephone network capacity and the number of subscribers, Wu added.

He said the Chinese government places great importance on the development of the information industry, a pillar industry of the economy and a catalyst for the country's social and economic development.

In the next five years, China will focus on building infrastructure for a national information network, accelerating the development of information technology (IT) and IT industry and pushing forward the application of information technology in all sectors of the economy.

Statistics show that during China's ninth five-year plan period from 1995 to 2000, output in its IT manufacturing industry witnessed an increase from 245.7 billion yuan (US$29.6 billion) in 1995 to 778.2 billion yuan (US$93.8 billion) in 1999.

During the same period, China's telecommunication industry witnessed an increase in output from 98.9 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in 1995 to 211.3 billion yuan (US$25.4 billion) in 1999.

From September this year, China's telephone subscribers topped 200 million.

(Xinhua 10/28/2000)