The First China International Information Technology Exhibition, sponsored by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), opened Thursday in Beijing and will last till December 16.

Wang Guangying, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), Hu Qili, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Lou Qinjian, vice minister of Information Industry viewed the exhibition.

Some 200 IT firms from home and abroad displayed their latest products and technologies at the show.

Electronics giant Haier, for example, hired professional modelsto promote their mobile phones and "network home appliances", a new concept initiated by Haier that basically means the customers can control home appliances via the Internet.

But it was Panasonic from Japan that overshadowed other exhibitors by demonstrating their long experience in providing electronic instruments for Olympic Games and other sports events, aiming obviously at the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing.

An MII official said that patent technologies, inventions, products based on new information technology (IT), computers and software, telecommunications and Internet technologies and household appliances are being displayed at the exhibition.

Various symposiums accompanying the exhibition, such as an "inventors' forum," will focus on the current hot topics in the information industry.

The exhibition, scheduled to be held annually, was organized bythe China Electronics Science & Technology Exchange Center under the MII.

(People's Daily December 14, 2001)