At present, the country's electronic information industry has surpassed Japan in scale to be the second in the World, and has also become the top pillar industry of China.

In 2003, the industry achieved a sales revenue of 1,880 billion yuan (US Dollar 220 billion-230 billion), while that of Japan was only 190 billion US Dollars in the same period.

The country's information industry sales revenue has exceeded that of Japan, and is only second to the USA in terms of scale. Currently, the number of fixed phone and mobile phone users has amounted to 240 million, ranking the first in the world; the internet users accounted for the third in the world; and DVD output is also on the top of the list.

Moreover, China is also the largest display-manufacturing base in the world, and the color TV sets including high-end digital TV have increased by over 30 percent.

In view of the import & export trade volume, the electronic information industry takes up a proportion of about 32 percent in all the trades of the country. Its export trade volume amounts to 124.1 billion US Dollars, constituting about one third of the country's overall export trade volume. The information industry has developed from a new hi-tech industry to be the country's top backbone industry.

From January to April in 2004, the country's information industry has retained a good momentum of sustained and rapid development. The whole trade scored a sales income of RMB 690 billion yuan, increasing by 45.8 percent on a year-on-year basis; the value-added profit also had a growth rate of 45 percent on a year-on-year basis, much higher than that of other trades.

By People's Daily Online