A senior IT official said in Beijing on Wednesday that the Chinese government will step up its support for software innovation, especially the development of core software and other patentable programs.

Wang Bingke, deputy director of the Department of Economic Restructuring and Operations under the Ministry of Information Industry, said the ministry will encourage software enterprises to cooperate and form innovative unions, so as to gradually build an innovative, home-grown technological system.

At the same time, the ministry will prod firms to develop innovative information security software, he added.

According to the government plan, by 2010 domestic sales of software and information services will exceed 1 trillion yuan (about US$151 billion), 65 percent of which will be home produced.

In 2006, the total sales of China's software market stood at 470 billion yuan.

Wang said most of China's software producers are medium and small sized enterprises, with limited capacity for innovation and few core technologies.

To encourage software innovation, the ministry honored 10 software enterprises Wednesday for their achievements in developing home-brand software products.

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2007)