Sales of China's software industry are expected to reach almost 1.1 trillion yuan (US$143 billion) in 2010, according to the Ministry of Information Industry.

"The domestic sales of China's software companies are expected to hit one trillion yuan in 2010, an annual growth of 30 percent between 2006 and 2010," said the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Software Industry Development released by the ministry.

Meanwhile, exports of the software industry will grow 28 percent annually to US$12.5 billion in 2010, it said.

It said China will by 2010 have ten to 15 major software firms that each have annual sales of 10 billion yuan.

Wang Bingke, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Economic Restructuring and Operations, has said the government will step up its support for software innovation.

Wang said the ministry will encourage software firms to cooperate and form innovative unions to build an "innovative, home-grown technological system".

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