China's software industry revenue up 26.4% in Q1

China's revenue for software industry increased 26.4% year on year to nearly RMB 466.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said. The growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than that in the first two months and 15 percentage points higher than the revenue growth of the electronics and information. Profits of the software industry stood at 53.9 billion yuan during the period, an increase of 15.8 percent from a year earlier, Xinhua news agency has quoted Chen Wei, director of the ministry's Department of Software Service Industry as saying. New orders in the first three months jumped more than 70 percent from the same period last year, as software companies continued to increase research and development investments, Chen said at a press conference for the upcoming International Soft China 2012. But costs also rose sharply in the first quarter, up 15 percent from one year earlier, with wage costs jumping 28 percent, Chen said. More than 600 software companies will attend the 16th International Soft China 2012, which will run from May 31 to June 1.