Special Supplement: National bases spur development
Shanghai Pudong Software Park has become a national software industry base and outsourcing base since it was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and co-founded by the Ministry of Information Industry and the Shanghai municipal government.
Government officials decided to set up a software industry base in Shanghai after visiting the city in 1991, to stimulate the Chinese software industry, which was fast becoming more commercial, international and large-scale.
The move proved to be significant for the development of China's software industry. Today, it is a leading and fundamental industry for the country. The NDRC dubbed Shanghai Pudong Software Park the "national software industry base" in 2001, ahead of 10 rival parks across the country.
Two years later, the NDRC, Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Information Industry went further, naming it the "national software outsourcing base", along with five other software parks.
Shanghai Pudong Software Park is one of four software parks in the country to gain these two titles.
In 2006, 11 national software industry bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, Dalian, Nanjing, Wuhan, Jinan and Hangzhou, and six national software outsourcing bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Xi'an and Chengdu, together secured 200 billion yuan in sales income, accounting for 41.7 percent of the nation's total software industry income.
Their total exports hit $2.5 billion, 42 percent of the whole industry. The software parks brought together more than 7,000 companies, accounting for 48 percent of all the nation's software firms. These firms employed 500,000 people - 40 percent of the country's total software industry workers.
Practice has shown that it is the right decision to construct national software industry base and outsourcing base.
(China Daily 09/05/2007 page6)
