China's software sector generated 580 billion yuan (US$80.8 billion) in revenue in 2007, an annual increase of 20.8 percent, the Ministry of Information Industry reported.

Specifically, sales of software products surged 22.5 percent to 201.7 billion yuan, while system integration income rose 16 percent to 147.8 billion yuan, the latest ministry statistics said.

The income of software and technology services hit 97.8 billion yuan, up 24.8 percent. Revenues of embedded system software hit 115.5 billion yuan, up 21.8 percent year on year.

Revenues generated from integrated circuit design jumped 16.8 percent year on year to 17.1 billion yuan, the ministry said without giving further details.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2008)