Official vows to ensure IT security

China has to make sure that information technology is not used against the country's economic development, chief of industry regulatory body said on Thursday.

The remarks come amid the government's increasing concerns over IT vulnerabilities in key government departments and strategically important industries, such as banking, energy and telecommunications.

"The nation's information security could come under direct threat if the software we use was implemented with backdoors and the like," said Miao Wei, minister of the Industry and Information Technology.

"Our job is to make sure such things do not happen."

China pledged to support the growth of home-made IT products long time ago but has seen little progress in luring high-end users.

After the United States accused five Chinese military officers of cyber espionage, an allegation denied by China, the government restricted the use of US products in some sensitive departments and speeded up its efforts to attract more home-made companies.

"Cyber security plays a fundamental role in China's economic development," said Zhou Hongren, deputy director of the Advisory Committee of State Information, a think tank that advices top political leaders.

The nation should focus on high-end software development and support acquisitions, said Zhou.

China's software industry has grown 30 percent year-on-year over the past decade while the annual global average growth rate has been around 7 percent, he added.