China electronics information industry has grown three times faster than the national GDP growth rate and has grown faster than the machinery manufacturing and metallurgy industries. In 2005, total sales in the electronic information industry increased by 28.4% from 2004 to 3.8 trillion Yuan (approximately US$475 billion). The added-value base of the Chinese electronic information industry is about 900 billion Yuan (approximately US$112 billion). The value added ratio is (amount of value added / total sales x 100%) only 23.4%, compared to the whole national average of 27.1%.This is evidence for China's role as an assembly base that is dependent upon overseas components and parts, intermediary goods, and capital goods. The number of electronic information industry-related companies in China jumped from 7,500 in 2001, to 17,600 in 2003 and 67,000 in 2005, with approximately 56,000 of these being manufacturing companies. The number of employees engaged in the industry grew from 3.01 million in 2001 to 4.08 million in 2003 and 7.61 million in 2005 (out of whom 5.51 million are employed in the manufacturing industry).
The main areas of China electronics information industry are computer-related goods (including software), China mobile phones , electronic parts and household entertainment equipment. Wholesale Electronics parts-related investment made up 50% of the total investment in the electronic information industry. Promotion of the electronic parts industry is a part of China’s national industrial policy to raise the ration of value added in the sector. China’s software industry – 11% of the electronic information industry – (software products, system integration, software services, and others) growth has been rapid as demonstrated by a growth rate of 40% with sales of 390 billion Yuan (approximately US$48.8 billion) as of 2006.Approved software companies have reached 11,660, increasing by over 1,000 per annum. There are roughly 1 million employees working in China’s software industry. China’s software exports have reached US$35.9 billion in 2005, though this was short of the US$50 billion export goal set forth in the Tenth 5-Year Plan, which ended in 2005.