A recent survey by the Ministry of the Information Industry showed China's IT industry is robust, in sharp contrast to the slowdown in the growth of the world's IT industry.

China has replaced the United States as having the world's largest mobile phone user population at 120.6 million, according to the survey report.

Statistics show that the sales volume of IT products for the past six months has reached 356.1 billion yuan-worth nationwide, up 28.3 percent over the same period of the previous year. Registered net surfers have exceeded 26 million in the country, an average annual increase of 25 percent.

Motorola, Sanyo and Samsung have invested in Tianjin to produce mobile phones. The annual mobile phone output in Beijing and Tianjin represents over half of the country's total.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/07/2001)