China software and information service industry increases scale

Updated: 2012-06-20 10:11

By Zhao Qian (chinadaily.com.cn)

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China's software and information service industrial scale has exceeded one trillion yuan ($157.3 billion), said Qiu Hong, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce at the 2012 China International Software and Information Service Fair (CISIS) on June 15, 2012. She said the commerce ministry will constantly improve policies and the environment for software trade and information service outsourcing.

The past decade saw a rapid growth of China's software and information service industry. From the year of 2000 to 2011, the industrial scale increased up to 1846.8 billion yuan from 79.6 billion yuan, a growth of nearly 23 times. China's software export rose to $14.34 billion from almost zero and the CISIS has played an active role during these past ten years.

In 2011, as many as over 281 companies in China exported software that was worth over $10 million, with 101 more companies than in 2010. Fourteen Chinese companies achieved more than $100 million in software export, a year-on-year increase of three. Almost all large-scale domestic software enterprises have set up branches abroad.

In spite of the influence of the international financial crisis, the service outsourcing industry centering on information technology outsourcing provided 1.56 million jobs for college students. The software service trade has functioned as an important channel for China's software industry to compete in the international market and act as a powerful drive to boost the development of the industry.

With the software and information service industrial scale reaching one trillion yuan, the software industry in China has promising and broad prospects. To promote a healthy, rapid and sustainable development of the industry, policies and the environment will be improved. More efforts need to be made in the construction of the software export bases and the service outsourcing demonstration cities. The industry will also have to cultivate software talents and key enterprises to strengthen trade in software.