"China will promote the use of authentic software and beef up protection of software copyright in the age of the internet," said Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong on Wednesday while attending an industry forum in Beijing.

Total revenue of China's software industry hit 997 billion yuan (146 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009, up 25.6 percent year on year and 16 times the 2000 level.

Li encouraged traditional industries to be creative and further integrate with the software industry. He said technological progress and innovation are required to strengthen the software sector and to allow the sector to play a greater role in boosting social and economic development.