ABSTRACT
China’s information technology industry started to thrive in the early 1990s and is now the fastest growing sector in the economy. Between 1990 and 1999, the electronics and telecommunications sector grew more than twice as fast as the overall economy-registering an average annual growth rate of 32 per cent and an increase in output from 67 billion yuan to 819 billion yuan in nominal terms (China Economic News, 2 December 2000). Although private firms have been vital to the sector’s success, the state has played an important role, just as in other industrialising countries where infrastructure is underdeveloped.
