Chen Chong, deputy director in charge of electronic information products under the ministry, said at a seminar here that China has listed the development of the software industry high on its agenda in its tenth five-year plan for social and economic development for 2001-05.

Effective measures will be adopted to create a favorable environment for the development of such companies.

By 2005, China will have cultivated more than 100 famous software brands, with the export of software production topping US$2 billion.

Chen admitted that China's software industry still lags behind developed countries or even some developing countries such as India.

China now has more than 10,000 companies engaged in the development, research, sales of software products, employing more than 160,000 people.

Last year, China's software industry had a sales volume of 23 billion yuan, up 30 percent on a year-on-year basis.

(People's Daily 06/29/2001)