Information Technology Has Helped Transform the U.S. Economy and Fuel Record Growth. Declining IT prices have lowered the overall inflation rate by nearly one percentage point. Access to China s Growing Market Is Vital to Maintaining U.S. Global Leadership in Information Technology. Some analysts predict China will become the world s second largest personal computer market by the end of this year, and the third largest semiconductor market by 2001.
China is the world s fastest growing telecommunications market.
Each year, China installs enough phone lines to replace networks the size of Pacific Bell. By the end of 1999, China boasted approximately 40 million cellular subscribers. Only the U.S. telecommunications market is expected to be larger by the end of 2000. In 1999 alone, the number of Chinese Internet users quadrupled, jumping from 2 million at the beginning of the year to 9 million. Growth predictions put Internet users at over 20 million by the end of 2000.