Information Technology in China: software industry maintained rapid growth in 2008

In spite of the impact of the international financial crisis, China’s software industry has maintained a growth rate of over 20 percent since the second half of 2008, making it one of the fastest growing industries: in 2008, China’s software service industry generated 757.3 billion yuan in revenue (over 110 million US dollars), and the workforce of the entire industry exceeded 1.8 million people.

According to Li Yizhong, Minister for China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, since the start of this century China’s software industry has witnessed an annual average growth rate as high as 38 percent.

The revenue of China’s top 100 software producers rose 84.4 percent to about 203.95 billion yuan (29.86 billion U.S. dollars): among the 100 companies, 32 each posted revenue above 1 billion yuan. The top three were Huawei, ZTE and Digital China. Huawei was first for the eighth year in a row, with revenue of 55.56 billion yuan (over 8.2 billion US dollars).

Li noted that the software industry is of strategic importance, and China will adopt five measures to promote further development of the software industry.

First, the government should formulate the guidelines on accelerating the development of the software service industry, and support enterprises in major industries such as steel, automobile, textile and petrochemistry to spin off their advantageous divisions of software and information technology service to establish professional software service enterprises. The government should also strengthen intellectual property rights protection and regulate the software service industry market.

Second, it should implement adjustment and revitalization plans for major industries such as the electronic information industry, and vigorously develop and promote industrial software and industry application solutions.

Third, it should foster the growth points of the software industry, expand network-based software service, nurture emerging types of Internet-based software service such as e-commerce, e-finance and e-education, and drive the development of sectors such as cartoon, animation and gaming.

Fourth, it should implement pilot demonstration projects for the innovation of information technology service, and carry out plans to boost application of domestically-made software.

Fifth, it should accelerate personnel training, advance international cooperation on human resources and mutual recognition of professional qualifications, and expand the introduction of internationalized human resources.