If China is to meet its objective of becoming an IT superpower by 2010, the government must offer policies that support this goal, market research company Gartner Inc. said Thursday.
Gartner outlined several areas that the government should focus on in order to meet this goal. Support for IT exports and the removal of bureaucratic obstacles to investments in technology are particularly important, Gartner said in a statement.
In addition, the government should invest in IT training and educate businesses about how technology can help them, it said. Stronger protection of intellectual property is essential to support the future development of China’s technology industry, Gartner said. The government should also support mergers and acquisitions to develop companies with the scale required to compete internationally, it said.
At present, China’s IT industry does receive significant support from the country’s government, which has identified the industry as one that is strategically important to the country’s future and economic development.
Gartner presented several possible scenarios for the future development of China’s IT industry.
The “Global ICT (information and communication technology) Superpower” scenario laid out by the analyst firm was the most optimistic and described how China’s IT industry would roughly look if it was to play a leading worldwide role.
In this scenario, China’s IT industry would develop in a balanced fashion and would be a leading exporter of IT hardware, as well as providing IT outsourcing and application development services. IT would be widely used across all sectors of society, and China’s IT industry would push for tougher protection of intellectual property. In this scenario, foreign investment provides much of the seed capital for new companies, Gartner said.