China's gross domestic product (GDP) will maintain about 7.5 per cent growth in the 11th Five-Year Program period (2006-2010), and the average rate of energy conservancy will reach 4.4 per cent, according to Ma Kai, minister in charge of the State Development and Reform Commission.

When making detailed explanation on the Eleventh Five-year Program on National Economy and Social Development, Ma assured that China will achieve the target set in the program.

Ma said that according to the targets and requirements set in the program, the country will double the per capita GDP on the basis of that of 2000, which is a higher standard for the efforts to double GDP in 2010 on the basis of that of 2000 set by the 15th and 16th Congress of the Communist Party of China.

It is estimated that if the country succeeds in maintaining the economic growth of about 5.7 per cent in the 11th Five-Year Program period, the aggregate economy will be doubled. But the target of 5.7 per cent growth is obviously low, which is not in keeping with the actual situation of China's economic development.

Putting the factor of population growth into consideration, the country had set the growth of GDP at about 7.5 per cent during the 2006-2010 period, which will help the country to double the per capita GDP in the period.

Based on the supply and demand, it is very possible for the country to achieve 7.5 per cent economic growth in the 11th Five-Year Program period, which shall be a surefire target as compared with the average annual growth of 8.8 per cent in the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).
 
Source: Yahoo News

The number of mobile phone subscribers in China reached a record 377 million at the end of September, said the Ministry of Information Industry on Tuesday.

There is an increase of 43.1 million over the end of last year. On average, China has 4.78 million new mobile phone subscribers a month in the first nine months this year, said the ministry in a press release. At the end of September, there were 29.1 mobile phones for every one hundred Chinese.

Along with the increase of mobile phone subscribers, the business of short messages also witnessed a sharp rise of 40.2 per cent year-on-year, to more than 218.5 billion messages in the first nine months, said the ministry.

Though facing heated competition brought by mobile communications, the number of fixed-line subscribers rose 34 million over the end of last year to a total of 345 million by the end of September. By then, there were 26.6 fixed-line subscribers for every one hundred Chinese, the ministry said.

Statistics from the ministry show the total number of telephone users in China, including both mobile phone users and fixed-line users, reached 723 million by the end of September.

The ministry also said that in the first nine months this year China's total revenue of post and telecommunications reached 472.33 billion yuan (58 billion US dollars), up 10.9 per cent over the same period last year.

The postal revenue in the period was 41.23 billion yuan (5 billion US dollars), a rise of 4.2 per cent year-on-year, and the revenue of telecommunications hit 431.1 billion yuan (53 billion US dollars), up 11.6 per cent year-on-year.

China's mobile phone users outnumbered fixed-line phone subscribers in October 2003. China imported its first mobile phone telecom facilities in 1987, and it took a decade for its number ofsubscribers to jump to 10 million.

Four years later, the number of the country's mobile phone subscribers ranked first in the world.

Source: Asia Pulse