China ramps up spending on info sectors

Spending on information industries in China is set to surpass 2 trillion yuan ($326 billion) by 2015, according to the country's information regulator, the China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

Information industries, such as information technology and telecommunications, will grow by an annual compounded rate of 25 percent in two years, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The ministry will roll out policies to boost consumption derived from information industries, unnamed sources from the ministry said.

As a whole, information industries are expected to contribute 0.7 percent to the country's gross domestic product, churning out an additional market value worth 1 trillion yuan.

Major hurdles that hinder the takeoff of the industry include low Internet penetration rates and connection speeds, as well as financial and fiscal burdens for small and medium-sized Internet companies.

The government is planning to lower the threshold for small-cap Internet companies to go public and raise corporate bonds.

By 2015, 250 million households in the country will have access to broadband Internet, with an average connection speed of 20 megabytes in cities and 4 megabytes in rural areas.