China's software industry continued to expand in the first half of this year, with business income up 23 percent on the previous year to exceed 260 billion yuan (US$ 34 billion), the Ministry of Information Industry said on Saturday.

Sectors involving software services, system integration and IC design grew even faster.

Four municipalities and provinces namely Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shanghai each saw their software industry revenue topping 20 billion yuan.

The industry sources said the government would adopt more supportive policies to help develop software and system integration sectors and increase demand for self-developed products by increasing government procurement.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30 2007)