China's integrated circuit industry becomes world's largest

China's integrated circuit industry market scale crossed 880 billion yuan ($137.85 billion) in 2020, becoming world's largest and fastest growing, Sina Finance reported on Thursday.

China's integrated circuit industry recorded nearly 20 percent average annual growth during the 13th Five-Year Plan period to reach 884.8 billion yuan last year, the report said.

The growth rate was four times of the global growth rate in the same period, said Qiao Yueshan, head of the electronic information department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at the World Semiconductor Conference 2021, according to the report.

The demand of China's integrated circuit market will continue to increase with the steady growth of China's economy and driven by new applications such as 5G, cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and intelligent and connected vehicles.

China will strengthen cooperation with relevant countries and regions and encourage domestic and foreign enterprises to increase investment, the report said, citing Huang Libin, a spokesman for the ministry.

The country will promote the supply capacity of the whole chip industry chain and actively build a production and use cooperation platform, create a good application environment, and ensure the supply of chip products through both supply and demand to meet the market needs, Huang said.

China will focus on basic research in core and cutting-edge technologies in the fields of integrated circuits, software, high-end chips and new-generation semiconductor technology, and provide support via the national key research and development programs, said the Ministry of Science and Technology.