China exported 140 million mobile phones last year, said an Official with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Wednesday.

The export of handsets has been a rapid growth in the past two years, said Wang Bingke, an official with the MII at a forum Wednesday. Last year, exports rose nearly 66 percent from 2003 to 140 million handsets.

China turned out 230 million mobile phones last year. According to the MII's goal for 2005, the country is expected to make 260 million mobile phones in 2005, a rise of 13 percent year-on-year. One hundred sixty million of them would be exported abroad.

Last year, exports of electronic information products rose sharply. The MII reported that exports of electronic information products reached 200 billion US dollars in 2004, accounting for 34 percent of the total exports in the nation.

The strategy of "Going Out" is still a crucial guide for China's electronic information industry in 2005, the MII said. The ministry has set a goal of 240 billion US dollars in electronic information product exports for this year, up 20 percent over 2004.