Development of China Information Industry in 1998 and the Main Tasks for 1999

Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China

(Feb. 4, 1999)

  1. Development of the Chinese information industry in 1998

Nineteen Ninety-eight is a year of special significance in the development of the Chinese information industry which was ushered into a new era marked by the establishment of the Ministry of Information Industry.

  1. The information industry maintained a fast and healthy growth momentum
  2. In 1998, the information industry maintained a fairly rapid grow rate with obvious increase in investment and continuous optimization of the industrial structure. The market expanded further in depth and scope and the quality and returns of the network and economic operations continued to improve.

    The communications revenue of the year was 229.5 billion yuan, up by 25.4% over the previous year; the investment in the fixed asset of communications reached 175.4 billion yuan, an increase of 39.2%. Of the newly added GDP, the share of the new increment from communications went from 2.4% a year ago to 4.9% in 1998; the fixed asset investment as a percentage to the social fixed asset investment rose from 5% to 6.1% during the same period.

    The overall communications capability was further enhanced. The fiber optic trunk network comprising eight vertical and eight horizontal lineswas completed 2 years ahead of schedule, covering all the provincial capitals nationwide. The optic cable across the country totaled 1 million km and the toll circuits 1.63 million lines. The Asian-European land optic cable and FLAG submarine optic cable were inaugurated one after the other. With 22.21 million lines added, the office exchange capacity stood at 135 million lines. The GSM network for mobile communications extended to 330 prefectural cities and over 2,000 county towns and offered roaming service with 38 countries and regions. The China public multimedia communications network was interconnected with 28 provinces and autonomous regions. With 2.7 million km of trunk mail route and 84,000 post offices in operation, the postal Green-Card Project made universal money deposit and withdrawal possible in 527 cities above the county level in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, increasing interconnected service outlets to 5,738.

    The key communications services grew at high speed. With 28.34 million new telephone users added in the year, the total number of users reached 110 million (including mobile users), bringing the national teledensity to 10.64%, urban teledensity to 27.7% and for the cities above the provincial capital level such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Haikou and Kunming to over 40%. Telephone service was made available to 67.1% of the administrative villages. Mobile telephony became one of the pillar services of communications, growing the user base by 11.32 million to a total of 24.98 million. The users of data and multimedia communications totaled 1.54 million as result of a rise of a million in 1998. New headway was made in joint construction as 74 national group users built private computer systems with the public communications networks. A dedicated network covering the national ports of entry was completed in collaboration with the General Administration of Customs and other bodies, rendering strong support to the anti-smuggling struggle. China Unicom achieved fairly fast growth in service, increasing mobile telephone users to 1.31 million and radio paging users to 2.02 million and inaugurating local services in Tianjin and Chengdu. With major postal services growing rapidly, the balance in postal savings reached 313.3 billion yuan, philatelic revenue 7.79 billion yuan and EMS revenue 3.12 billion yuan .

    The manufacturing industry of electronic and information products showed good performance which led to a boom in the scale of the industry. The sales in 1998 was 310 billion yuan, rising by 14.1%; the value addition of the industry reached 74 billion yuan, up by 13.8%; the profit and tax totaled 23 billion yuan and export rose to 27 billion USD.

    Economy of scale was achieved for the production of the main electronic products which won considerably higher domestic market share and included 2.88 million PCs, up by 73.9%; 32.87 million lines of SPC exchanges, an increase of 67.3%; 32.96 million color TV sets, 29.6% higher; 10.2 million mobile handsets, up by 105% and 1.5 billion integrated circuits, a 25.4% increase. With our electronic and information product manufacturing industry ranking among the tops ones worldwide, the production of color TV, stereo, telephone sets, etc. leaped to the first place in the world. In parallel to the continuous growth in the industrial scale, the electronic products improved both in variety and quality. For the first time, the share of the capital electronic goods in the product mix exceeded that of consumption and component goods as a result of more rational product mix. The 909integrated circuit project, the color TV tube project, the new component dual processing and other projects proceeded smoothly.

    Making up 85% of the total output value of the whole industry, the coastal areas were still the main force spurring growth in the manufacturing industry of electronic and information products, as reflected by a 24 percentage increase jointly contributed by 8 provinces and municipalities of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. Guangdong was the first province in China to exceed 100 billion yuan in output value. With an ever-growing role in driving growth in the electronic industry, the economy under the shareholding system contributed an 11% increase and gave rise to a development situation in which the public ownership remained dominant among other coexisting ownership forms, so that the advantages of each could be shared by all.

     

  3. The separation of the functions of government from those of enterprises was accelerated and the reforms in all fields were unfolded successfully.
  4. Nineteen Ninety-eight was the year in which the greatest effort was made in the most extensive reform of the information industry. In compliance with the MII's plan to determine the size, posts and functions of the staff approved by the State Council, the MII's restructuring was basically completed and the Ministry performed its functions normally. Meanwhile, the work for establishment of the State Postal Bureau came to a successful conclusion. The MII was pressing on with the work to delink with the enterprises directly under the Ministry based on the relevant plans set by the central government.

    To meet the needs for the national restructuring and the posts and telecom development, the MII made a major decision to separate postal and telecom operations on the nationwide basis. By the end of December of last year, the post and telecom offices in municipalities, prefectures and counties and the provincial postal bureaus had been established and started operating under the new scheme. The separation of posts and telecom into two major sectors laid the groundwork for accelerated growth and more in-depth reform of the communications industry. At the same time, good progress was made in divesting the national posts and telecom sectors of their radio paging asset and in restructuring.

    The electronics industry was committed to doing a good job in the pilot projects for building a modern enterprise system with a view to promoting big corporation strategy. With new products as the powerhouse, the capital as the ties with the parties involved and the market as the development opportunity, the sector sped up the pace of fostering conglomerates with overall competitive strength in economy, technology, capital operation, international trade, etc., better enabling the rational flow and recombination of production elements and increased level of intensive operation and giving rise to a development pattern with the large enterprises leading the medium-and-small ones in growth. The activities associated with the top 100 electronic enterprises yielded marked results and their sales revenue already accounted for 62.3% of the industry as a whole.

  5. Macro-regulation was greatly intensified and the sectoral management stepped up

Conscientiously carrying out the functions given by the State Council, the MII in 1998 enhanced its macro-management over the national information industry and made a great deal of effort in providing unified planning, market regulation, policy guidance and information services.

In the light of market demand, the MII introduced and improved the license management system with regard to the operation of telecom services, network access of telecom equipment and the philatelic market. In conjunction with the departments concerned, the MII dealt heavy blows at the law violations such as fraudulent use of telecom codes and numbers and illegal offering of international telephone services via dedicated international circuits, thus safeguarding the interest of the country and legitimate right of the consumers. It organized readjustment of the postal and telecom tariffs and actively engaged in the coordination of transmitting broadcast and TV programs via public communications networks. Meanwhile, the Ministry also adopted a number of measures to support the development of China Unicom and other operators, since there were in excess of 2,900 approved telecom operators nationwide and over 100 of them were inter-provincial interconnected operators. Over 3.4 million lines of dedicated exchanges owned by more than 800 entities were connected with the public communications networks.

Huge progress was made in promoting informatization. The information projects of various departments and regions yielded initial results. By promoting informatization, MII provided a strong impetus to the wide application of information technology and facilitated the fast growth of the information industry and the emergence of new growth points in the national economy.

The Ministry stepped up the standardization and management of software products and market by issuing and implementing the Interim Procedures for the Software Product Managementand formulated an IC card application and development plan as well as relevant management measures, in a bid to spur the development of the Chinese IC card industry. Based on the principle of combining introduction, assimilation and independent innovation, the Ministry put forward the policy measures for supporting the development of the mobile communications industry. A number of Chinese enterprises such as GDT, Datang, ZTE and Huawei turned out products with independent IPR and effected overall breakthroughs in the manufacture of SPC exchanges and mobile communications equipment. Shanghai Bell and other joint venture enterprises further increased local content. By the end of 1998, the home-made exchanges had constituted 98% of all the newly added telephone exchange capacity.

        II. The Main Task for China's Information Industry in 1999

The general requirement for the development of China's information industry in 1999 is to adhere to the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, implement the spirit of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the central government conference on economic work in a deep-going way, accelerate the development and improve the quality of service with the focus on broadening the internal demand; continue to deepen the reform, conduct the industrial reorganization and restructuring; separate the functions of administration from those of management, strengthen the macro-economic regulation and control and rationalize the distribution of resources; rely on the progress of science and technology to promote the integration of R&D with the industry and enhance the capability of independent innovation; reinforce the leading bodies, improve the quality of the workers and administrative staff and hail the 50th founding anniversary of the PRC with excellent achievements obtained by the whole trade both materially and culturally and ideologically.

The main objectives for the development of China's information industry in 1999 are to raise the service revenue to 285.2 billion yuan, an increase of 24% over the previous year (33 billion yuan from posts and 252.2 billion yuan from telecom, up by 13% and 24.9% respectively over a year ago); to increase 20 million fixed telephone exchange lines, 15.1 million fixed telephone subscribers, 14.7 million mobile subscribers and 3 million data and multimedia subscribers; and to realize a national teledensity of 12.9% and an urban teledensity of 29%.

The manufacturing industry of electronic information products is to increase its sales revenue to 360 billion yuan, a rise of 16% over the preceding year; the industrial value addition will reach 84 billion yuan, 14% higher than last year; the total amount of tax and profits will rise to 26 billion yuan, up 13% over a year ago; the export value will grow to 28 billion US dollars, increasing by 3% over the preceding year. At the same time, 4.5 million PC sets, 35 million lines of SPC exchanges, 30 million color TV sets, 13 million mobile handsets and 2.1 billion integrated circuits will be added.

The following are the main tasks for China's information industry in 1999:

(1) Actively explore the market to realize beneficial and rapid growth

In response to the government demand for accelerating the construction of infrastructure, the communications sector will exert more efforts in boosting the development of mobile, data and multimedia and international communications as well as improving the utilization ratio and management level of the network resources. Guided by the market, the sector will zealously foster new consumption trends and keep increasing the rural access to postal and telephone services to help rural areas to achieve a relatively comfortable living standard and economic growth.

In manufacturing electronic information products, emphasis will be on the industrialization of popular products such as digital audio & video products, mobile communications products and new-generation PC products. Major projects will drive the development of software industry; while focus will be on the design of chips and the accelerated growth of the IC industry to quickly develop affordable, easy-to-use and high-quality electronic products and increase the penetration of household electronic appliances in the rural areas. Meanwhile, the sector will stick to strategies of win-by-quality and market diversification, further establish and improve the export and marketing service system according to international standard and strive to expedite the export of high value-added electronic information products and system equipment.

(2) Continue to deepen the reform and actively facilitate the two fundamental changes

Based on the separation of posts and telecom operations and in conformity with the unified plan of the government, the communications industry has started to carry out reorganization and reform in the telecom sector to establish specialized enterprise groups. By conducting trans-regional and inter-departmental strategic reorganization, large enterprise groups with coordinated and complementary products and technologies will be formed in the electronic manufacturing sector.

(3) Improve the quality of service and product according to the market demand

An effective supervision and guarantee mechanism will be set up through an organic combination of government control, subscriber supervision and enterprise self-discipline. Due attention is to be paid to the management and supervision of the quality of product and service. By such means as organizing surveys on customer satisfaction and setting up customer councils, views from all circles are to be collected and made public to urge enterprises to improve service quality. In the mean time, with joint inspection efforts from related departments, violations of rules and laws are to be strictly investigated and dealt with. Typical cases with ill impact are to be exposed in the media and the customers encouraged to safeguard their legitimate rights by legal means.

(4) Earnestly perform the government function and strengthen the macro-economic control

After the separation of administration functions from those of management, the main responsibilities of the Ministry of Information Industry will be shifted to providing guidance for development, enhancing the macro-management in unified planning, policies, laws and regulations, system standards and information guidance and stepping up market supervision and regulation by legal, administrative and economic means. The ministry will strive to build up the legal system in the communications industry, seriously implement the Postal Law and strengthen its control on the postal market according to law; hasten the drafting process of the Telecommunications Law and the regulations governing the telecom market, loose no time in stipulating and perfecting market regulatory measures for telecom services and equipment and strengthen the guidance and coordination of network interconnection. The ministry will endeavor to publish the guiding principles for improving electronic product market as early as possible, draw up laws and regulations for the industry to exercise self-discipline over prices and gradually introduce legality into market management of the information industry. Meanwhile, the ministry will actively cooperate with the relevant government bodies to crack down on smuggling activities, forbidding without exception the use of smuggled products by enterprises. The industrial management should be open, fair and just, creating and providing a healthy external environment for the growth of the enterprises.