China's software exports surged in the first four months of this year, due largely to technological innovation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Thursday.

Between January and April, exports totaled 3.27 billion U.S. dollars, up 54.9 percent year-on-year.

Software exports grew swiftly from 720 million U.S. dollars in 2001 to 10.24 billion U.S. dollars in 2007.

The ministry said the sector's income was 583.4 billion yuan (about 82 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, up 630 percent from 2001. Chinese software accounted for 8.7 percent of the global industry last year, up from 1.5 percent in 2001.

According to the ministry, the software sector's revenue was 193.55 billion yuan in the January-April period, up 31.2 percent.