MIIT boosts homegrown IT software

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

His 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 infected with backdoor viruses and the like," said Miao Wei, minister of the Industry and Information Technology. "Our job is to make sure such things do not happen."

The high alert on information security risks came after the United States accused five Chinese military officers of cyber espionage.

China immediately denied the allegations.

In the past week, China has made a number of swift moves in its IT sector to "safeguard national security".

They include a ban on using Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 system in new government computers and adding a review process for Internet-related hardware and software products in key industries.

The moves largely targeted US firms; software providers from other nations were not affected as of Thursday.

Major software companies operating in China, such as France-based Dassault Systemes SA and SAP AG, a German company, reported "business as usual".

But overseas software providers may find the Chinese market more unfriendly in the future.

Senior government officials are expressing support for local players and scarcely mention foreign companies, even in high-end markets in which domestic firms are not much of a factor.

"China is in desperate need of self-made software and services because the cybersecurity issue is fully capable of damaging the nation's economy," said Zhou Hongren, member of the Advisory Committee for State Informatization, a think tank that advises top political leaders.

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

"High-end software that we can trust is what China needs right now," he said.

Revenue in the software sector exceeded 3 trillion yuan ($480 billion) last year, a 23.4 percent surge compared with a year earlier, according to statistics released by MIIT.

The annual growth rate globally was around 7 percent.

gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn