China's communications industry generated revenues of 292.81 billion yuan (US$35.2 billion) in the first seven months of the year, registering a growth of 14.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

Revenue fulfilled by the telecom sector stood at 262.19 billion yuan (US$31.5 billion), up 15.2 percent from the previous year, while the figure for the postal sector was 30.62 billion yuan (US$3.68 billion), representing an increase of 7.6 percent.

The country's communications industry watchdog attributed the sustainable development to large domestic market demand, especially those accumulated during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China.

"The demand helps the industry increase investment and innovation, as well as optimize industrial structure," said MII in a statement yesterday.

Compared to last year, mobile telecommunications and data communications saw an increase by occupying 47 percent and 5.4 percent of the total revenue in the first seven months.

MII figures showed newly recruited fixed-line telephone users topped 26.53 million during January-July, up 19.8 percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of newly recruited mobile phone subscribers was 33.45 million, up 32.8 percent from a year earlier.

However, the growth momentum for mobile phone subscribers is showing a sign of declining as the monthly figures of new users has dropped from 56.65 million last year to 46.92 million this year.

"The optimization of the telecom sector's business structure will pave the way for healthy development of the industry in the coming months," said the MII statement.

"We will continue to upgrade our existing telecom networks and cultivate new economic growth areas within the telecom industry," stressed MII Minister Wang Xudong at the China Beijing International High-Tech Expo.

As for fixed asset investment, the volume added up to 94.19 billion yuan (US$11.3 billion) during the January-July period, up 41.6 percent from the previous year.

(China Daily September 18, 2003)