BEIJING, Sept. 25 -- The China Internet Conference, an annual event featuring China's Internet industry opened in Beijing Monday, looking back at past achievements and exploring the industry's future prospects.

    In the past year, China has seen a rapid development in the Internet industry. The population of Chinese netizens hit 162 million as of June this year, a year-on-year increase of 31.7 percent. This means 12.3 percent of the total Chinese population are online, 3 percent higher than in 2006.

    Organized by the Internet Socoeity of China, The fifth annual conference began on Sept. 24 and runs for three days.

    Deputy Minster of Information Industry Xi Guohua addressed the opening ceremony, urging information technology enterprises to continue innovation and provide better online services.

    A number of stakeholders participated in the first day of the conference. They included representatives from government departments for information industry and relevant ministries, network operators, software and hardware facility manufacturers, and scholars and experts. Li Kaifu, president of Google China, Sina CEO Cao Guowei and many other executives from top Internet companies attended the meeting.

    Due to China's constant improvements in technologies, Chinese IT products and services have blossomed in recent years, including instant messengers, weblogs, podcasting and business-to-business, consumer-to-consumer and other forms of online businesses.

    A number of IT companies and websites are recognized for their "self-discipline" in following government regulations and actively participating in social charity campaigns.

    On Monday, a summit was held for CEOs and presidents of web companies. In the next two days attendees will focus on topics of web techniques, online business, Internet advertising and other specific fields.

    (Source: China Daily)