The Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology has called the Internet, the engine boosting China's economy. Xi Guohua made the comments at the 2010 Internet Conference in Beijing.

China is expanding its lead as the country with the most Internet users.

The Industry and Information Ministry estimates that about one third of the population has used the Internet. About 377-million people surf the web on mobile phones, making up nearly 66 percent of total Internet users.

One bright spot has been the spike in online consumers. More than 142-million people have shopped online, a 30 percent increase in only half a year. E-commerce is becoming the backbone of the country's Internet industry.

For most on-line shoppers, security has been the biggest concern. More than half of Internet users have been attacked by viruses or Trojan horses in the past 6 months.

Despite security issues, the Internet is changing nearly every field in people's daily lives. Whether reading news, shopping, chatting with friends, people are doing more of their daily routines online.

Xi Guohua said, "All departments of the central government, and more than 98 percent of local governments have opened their own official web-sites to inform the public about their schedule. People can even pay taxes online."

The Information Ministry is encouraging the Internet, telecommunications, radio and television to merge together. It also says a more secure and healthy environment is a must for the Internet to play a bigger role in China's economy.

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