China sets goal of 800 million on Internet

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BEIJING, May 7 (UPI) -- China says it plans to provide Internet service to 800 million of its citizens by 2015 as part of a national development program.

That would mean 57 percent of the country's total population would have online access, including 200 million people in rural areas, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

With increased access, revenues for the online service industry would grow at an annual rate of 25 percent and provide jobs for 2.3 million people by 2015, China's Ministry of Information and Information Technology said.

The value of the country's e-commerce businesses is expected to hit $2.8 trillion in 2015, ministry officials said.

The ministry also announced similar plans for the communications sector.

Under the plan, by 2015 China's telecommunication businesses will have revenues of $238 billion, while the total number of 3G subscribers will exceed 450 million, it said.