1970-01-01 08:33:28
China's electronic and information sector grew at a slower pace in the first quarter, with growth in fixed-asset investment ebbing further and input by overseas-funded businesses declining, a source of the ministry of industry and information said on Wednesday.
From January to March, major manufacturers in the sector realized 1.06 trillion yuan (151 billion U.S. dollars) in output value, a growth of 18.6 percent compared to the same period last year. The growth was 10 percentage points lower than the average for major industrial enterprises at large.
In comparison, the sector's growth rate was 19.9 percent for the whole of last year, 7.7 percentage points lower than the average for all industries.
The major electronic and information enterprises injected 50.79billion yuan in fixed assets in the first three months, up 22.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. The growth rate was 17.3 percentage points lower than the January to March period of 2006 and 5.2 percentage points lower than the same period of 2007.It was also 4.1 percentage points lower than the growth rate for the average of all industries.
Gao Sumei, an economist of the ministry, ascribed the slowdown to an adjustment period for the electronic and information sector and some foreign-funded enterprises' moving to Vietnam, India and other countries where the investment climate was improving and labor was cheaper.
After years of rapid expansion, the sector has entered a period of structural adjustment. Manufacturing of some traditional products, such as DVD players and CRT TVs, has ebbed, while production of newer products, such as flat panel TVs, is still too small in scale to be able to drive up the whole sector, according to Gao.
In addition, the economic slowdown in the United States and the European Union, major markets of China's electronic exports, led to an 8 percent decline in the sector's export volume in the first three months.
This, together with mounting production costs at home, has made it difficult for some smaller electronic businesses along China's coast to survive. Some enterprises on the Pearl River Delta have moved out or gone bankrupt.
The January to March period saw overseas-funded enterprises' investment in the electronic and information sector decline 2.6 percent over the same period on 2007 to 46.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Source:Xinhuanet