The sector made 823.7 billion yuan from sales last year, 20 percent higher than a year earlier, according to a national conference on information development which opened Monday in Shanghai, China's leading industrial center.

　　The industrial added value for the information industry totaled177.4 billion yuan, an increase of 16 percent. Sales of software and systems integration devices rose 34 percent to 75 billion yuan.

　　Breakthroughs have been made in computer networks, mobile telecommunications, digital terminal products and new spare parts production. The data and multimedia services, IP telephone and short messaging also developed rapidly.

　　China has 35 million computer users and 33.7 million Internet surfers.