The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology conferred Chengdu with the honorary title of Chinese Software Famous City on Feb 21 to become the third city in the country and the first in western China.

In the past five years, the local software sector has grown rapidly, attaining an average annual growth rate of 47.2 percent. In 2011, the city reaped 130.8 billion yuan in operating revenues, a rise of 43.5 percent year on year.

Software revenues amounted to 100 billion yuan, up 48.2 percent. The software service sector accounted for over seven percent of local GDP. Software exports surged to 700 million U.S. dollars, up 47.29 percent year on year.