China is to spend one trillion yuan (US$120 billion) over the next five years to spur its information industry, according to a meeting of Ministry of Information Industry (MII) held in Beijing on Saturday.

In a breakdown, 500 billion yuan (US$60.24 billion) will go for telecommunications, 50 billion yuan (US$6.02 billion) for post service, and 400 billion yuan (US$48.19 billion) for electronic information technology, according to the meeting.

China's information industry is to develop steadily, with its value added accounting for seven percent of the nation's gross domestic product by the year 2005, said sources from the ministry.

Through 2005, the information industry will become a major pillar industry of the country.

The Chinese government will make great efforts to push forward and give priority to the application of information technology as a way of boosting economic and social development, said Lu Xinkui, vice-minister of MII.

Lu also noted that such a huge investment could not be financed by just government allocations, bank loans and money from enterprises.

He said money would need to be raised from domestic and international capital markets, and called for transforming investment mechanism the sector to allow the entry of private and foreign funds.

Lu said that government will provide more channels for the investment and especially encourage direct investment from home and abroad.

(Xinhua News Agency 09/30/2001)