"China's IT industry has been performing excellently after its accession to WTO and many changes have been taking place all over the nation," Tuesday's China Daily reported, quoting Lou Qinjian, vice-minister of information industry. The forum has been held in China for the first time with more than 50 delegates from all over the world gathering in Beijing.

Lou's remarks were the first official review of China's implementation of WTO commitments regarding the information industry after nine months as a WTO member, the paper said.

China's telephone users reached 381 million by the end of July and the middle and western regions showed the fastest growth rate, pointing to rapid expansion of the market potential. The rest of the world and foreign companies, which enjoy equal treatment, benefit too, Lou was also quoted as saying.

As for the protection of intellectual property rights, China has recently finished its revision of laws and regulations on copyright, software and trade mark protection and has built a complete legal system fully in compliance with WTO requirements, the paper quoted Wang Chao, an official with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC), as saying.

Phil Bond, undersecretary for technology at the US Department of Commerce, also expressed his appreciation for the progresses that China has made after WTO accession, the paper said.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials have urged government departments and businesses to use WTO rules as a way to gain equal treatment in world trade, according to the daily.

Chinese businesses are also seeing more and more anti-dumping lawsuits, which have added the cost towards Chinese exporters, Wang Chao was quoted as saying.

Last week, the WTO gave a positive review of China's implementation of intellectual property rights protection after its accession to the trade body and it will hold three more reviews of China's implementation of WTO rules on agriculture, market access and import license procedures this week, the paper said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2002)