China has 98.8 million Internet users so far according to the latest statistics released by the Minister of Information Industry in Beijing.

Rapid development has been made in China's information industry since China's reform and opening up, said an official with the Ministry of Information Industry on May 12 at the ministerial forum held during the China-ASEAN Information and Communications technology Week. China has recruited a total of 647.2 million fixed and movable telephone subscribers at present, second to none in the world with the popularity rates of fixed and movable telephone subscribers reaching 24.9 and 25.5 respectively.

China's electronics and information industries realized sales income of 2,650 billion yuan or 320.44 billion US dollars with 200 billion US dollars of exports. The capacity for independent research and development, manufacturing and products exports has been improved further. The proportion of value-added Chinese information industry accounts for 7.2 per cent of the gross domestic product, becoming the leading, pillar and basic industry of the country, which has played an important role in bringing about the economic and social development as well as improving the people's life.

Meanwhile, there are evident gaps in the overall development of information and communications if compared with that of the developed countries. The innovation ability and the key competitiveness of China's technological business are also not strong while there is very uneven development between the urban and rural areas of the country.