A visitor at the China (Nanjing) International Software Product and Information Service Trade Fair controls the 5G bionic robot on Saturday. The four day tech fair attracted more than 1,200 companies from more than 30 countries and regions across the world. Photo: IC

China's software and information technology and services industry has witnessed steady development, with both revenue and profits showing double-digit growth from January to July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a report on Tuesday, a reflection of China's industrial upgrading.

From January to July, China's software business revenue reached 5.456 trillion yuan ($797.26 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percent, the report said. While the growth rate dropped by 0.6 percentage points from the first half of the year, it still sustained double-digit growth.

During the same period, the total profit of the software industry came to 569.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent.

The export growth rate of the software business continued to pick up. Exports were valued at $29.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent, and the growth rate was 0.3 percentage points higher than that in the first half of the year.

Xiang Ligang, an independent tech analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the software industry rebound is a reflection of China's industrial upgrading from the production of labor-intensive goods like shoes to software products and design.

While the software industry has entered a rebound, driven by industrial upgrading, the domestic information and technology services segment, the major business sector that takes up to 65 percent of the software business, is also showing promising growth.

From January to July, the revenue of information technology services rose by 11 percent year-on-year, reaching at 3,576 trillion yuan, with a slight 1 percentage point drop on the growth rate in the first half of the year.

Cloud computing and big data services, which accounted for 15.4 percent of information technology service revenue, achieved a year-on-year increase of 8 percent.

As the country aims to guarantee information security, revenue growth in this sector accelerated to 94.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9 percent, the report said.

China's software development has been booming, driven by government guidance and policy supports. The 14th Five-Year Plan for the development of the software and information technology service industry, issued by the MIIT last November, set clear goals that by 2025, the software business revenue of domestic enterprises above designated size will exceed 14 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of more than 12 percent.

"Rising revenue of the software industry is expected, since China has been building up its software capabilities, and this has taken root in global competitive areas such as smart traffic, the industrial internet and 5G networks," Xiang said.

Experts predict that the software business will continue to grow as the country is giving weight to the digital economy under government support.