A top Chinese official said Thursday in Beijing that China strongly hopes to raise its cooperation in the information and telecommunications sector with the Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN) to a higher level.

Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju told ministers from the 10-member ASEAN during a "China-ASEAN ICT Week," which opened here Thursday, that China and ASEAN should explore more potential avenues for cooperation in the IT sector on the basis of "equality, friendship and mutual benefit."

The week-long workshop was proposed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last year. The theme of the workshop is building an IT sector partnership for common development.

China's IT industry has been growing rapidly over the past decade. The total number of telephone subscribers reached 674 million by March, the largest in the world. The number of Internet subscribers have reached 94 million, the second largest in the world.

China and the ASEAN are highly complementary in the IT sector and they can have good cooperation, Chinese analysts said.

China and the ASEAN have developed closer economic and political ties in the past years. They have established a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity, and reached an agreement to build a free trade area before 2010.

China-ASEAN trade reached 105.8 billion US dollars last year, making ASEAN China's fourth largest trading partner.

Cooperation in the IT sector is one the five key areas of China- ASEAN cooperation in the 21st century, according to a memo signed in 2001. The two sides have since signed a number of agreements to outline their IT cooperation.

Officials with the China's Ministry of Information Industry said China's trade of IT products with ASEAN has grown quickly. China has also started a program to train 500 IT professionals for ASEAN countries.

(Xinhua)