China has drawn up an ambitious plan to make its Internet services accessible to more people in the coming years and bring its total number of Internet users to 800 million by 2015.
The number, which accounts for around 57 percent of China's population, includes 200 million netizens in rural areas, according to an Internet development plan for 2011-2015 unveiled by the Ministry of Information & Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday.
The plan said revenues for the online service industry would grow at an annual rate of 25 percent during the period, helping to provide jobs for 2.3 million people by 2015. Meanwhile, the transaction value of the country's booming e-commerce businesses is expected to hit 18 trillion yuan ($2.854 trillion) by that period.
Another plan the MIIT announced for development of the communications sector says that by 2015, China's telecommunication businesses will reap combined revenues of 1.5 trillion yuan, while the total number of 3G subscribers will exceed 450 million, the Xinhua news agency reported.
As of the end of last year, China's online population totaled 513 million. More Chinese have been going online to voice their views and participate in public affairs in recent years.
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Political News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.