The output of Shenzhen's software industry grew 34 percent year-on-year to reach 75.3 billion yuan (US$9.65 billion) last year, a senior government official said yesterday.

Shenzhen aims to increase its annual software output to 180 billion yuan by 2010, Liu Zhongpu, director general of Shenzhen Technology and Information Bureau, told a software industry meeting at Wuzhou Guest House yesterday.

However, Liu said most of the software companies are small and face difficulties in getting financial support from venture capital firmss.

While some Shenzhen-based software companies like Huawei, ZTE and Tencent have grown into global giants, over 85 percent of the 1,478 software companies in the city have fewer than 100 employees, and less than 20 of them have passed the CMM (Capability Maturity Model for Software), an international assessment standard for outsourcing contractors, he said. Foreign companies do not outsource their software projects to companies with fewer than 200 employees.

Calling the software sector the "key for the city's innovation," Liu promised a package of initiatives to boost the software industry, including encouraging multinationals to set up research and development centers in Shenzhen, subsidizing local companies' applications for CMM assessment, providing more land to software companies, and subsidizing venture capital firms a portion of their investment in software companies.

Editor: Yan