The software and information technology market in China has become a new growth point for the national economy, said Qu Weizhi, vice-minister of information industry on Tuesday, according to today's China Daily.

Qu said the software industry should be given priority in developing countries as a major method of increasing national strength.

Qu said these things at a national meeting on the software industry held in the city of Kunshan in Jiangsu Province. The two-day meeting
ended yesterday.

China's software and information technology industry will grow by more than 30 per cent annually for the coming five years, according to the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), said Chen Chong, vice-director of the software department of the Ministry of Information
Industry.

Domestic enterprises produce 48 per cent of the software used in China at present. By the year 2005, the percentage should be
63, Chen said.

The industry has grown at three times the speed of GDP (gross domestic product) in the past five years. There are 1,500 enterprises engaged in the development, sale and service of software at present,
involving 500,000 people.

Operation systems and designing platforms, safety software, e-commerce application systems and integrated circuits are the planned development focuses for the next five years.

Exports of software are also a priority for development.

Qu also urged the construction of software parks. "Software parks would be a focus for investment,'' Qu said. Qu urged the setting up of venture capital funds for the software industry, encouraging contributions from society and offering a channel for
such donations to the industry.

"But different areas should make development plans according to local conditions so that the same projects are not developed everywhere,'' Qu said.

A series of successful software parks have been set up in the past five years, such as those in Pudong of Shanghai, Dalian, Xi'an and Chengdu. The parks produced 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) worth of goods in 1999, 81 per cent of the total production value for the whole of the industry in China.

Pudong Software Park is planning to enter a second phase of construction to meet demand from software companies. The park is also seeking further investment and making plans to go public within the year.