China's information industry is set to work for an annual growth rate of 20 percent in the coming five years, with its value added accounting for seven percent of the nation's gross domestic product by the year 2005.

Statistics show that the annual output value of the industry's electronic and information product manufacturing sector topped one trillion yuan (US$120 billion) in 2000, when total exports reached US$55.1 billion. The information industry has become a major pillar industry and the top exporter of the country.

The Chinese government will make great efforts to push forward and give priority to the application of information technology to boost economic and social development.

Lu Xinkui, deputy minister of information industry, said that the information industry has maintained a strong growth momentum since the beginning of 2001. It scored a growth rate of 32 percent in the January-March period, nearly 13 percent higher than that in the same period last year.

(People's Daily 06/05/2001)