China to Further Open Information IndustryChina will further open its information technology and product market in a bid to develop network economy and promote informatization, Zeng Peiyan, Minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, said Thursday.After joining the World Trade Organization, China will also gradually open its telecom and other service sectors, Zeng said in a statement at the International Symposium on Network Economy and Economic Governance. He said that China welcomes and encourages enterprises and investors of all countries to invest here, especially in information and other high-tech industries. Vigorously developing network economy and actively promoting informatization for the national economy and society are a strategic policy of the Chinese government. Zeng expected that China's information industry will witness a rapid development in the coming years. The minister forecast that the annual growth rate of the industry will be maintained at more than 20 percent in the next five years and the market scale will double by the year 2005. Official figures show that by the end of last year, there had been 22.5 million Internet users across the country, an increase of 153 percent over the previous year. E-commerce has begun taking off in China, with E-commerce transactions totaling 77.2 billion yuan worth last year, Zeng said. "We believe that the rapid development of China's network economy and speedier process of informatization will inevitably create enormous business opportunities for both Chinese and foreign investors," the minister said. |
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