It's a triple tsunami that is already crashing into much of the Asian world, pummeling exports and prompting predictions of a prolonged period of sluggish growth.

Will the wave wash over China's information technology (IT) industry, too?

Though not fully immune to the worldwide slide, the quick answer is "no." This conclusion is drawn simply by referring to the accomplishments of China's IT industry over the past year following its entry to the World Trade Organization last December.

Figures from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) showed that the output of the information industry grew by more than 20 per cent in the first 10 months of this year to 1.50 trillion yuan (US$177.5 billion).

Sales reached 1.04 trillion yuan (US$125.3 billion) in the same period, crossing the threshold of 1 trillion yuan for the first time in history.

That was compared to a report by the International Data Co-operation, a US-based information technology research company, showing the global IT industry encountered a most severe downturn this year with its growth rate dropping by 2.3 percentage points.

"Unabated domestic demand as well as reforms within the industry have contributed a lot to the growth," said Wu Jichuan, minister of the MII, at the 2002 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Asia in Hong Kong last week.

By honoring its commitments to the WTO, China began to cut its import tariffs on most high-tech products to zero starting from January 1.

Imports of IT products for the first half of the year stood at US$40 billion. The figure for the whole of last year was US$71 billion.

And the division of China Telecom, the country's largest telecom operator, on May 16 also marked a big restructuring of the telecom sector to better introduce the competition mechanism.

"Competition should take place in an orderly way under government supervision. Monopolies are not acceptable," Wu said.

Foreign investment is now able to be utilized in China's telecom infrastructure businesses and valued-added business.

"The supervision role played by the MII and the optimization of related telecom regulations have become the most crucial issues in the industry," said Kan Kaili, a professor with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

(China Daily December 11, 2002)