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)