China sets target for defense industry (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-01-06 09:40
China has set research and development targets for its defense industry to
meet the country's national defense needs and the development of the national
economy for the five years through 2010, officials said Thursday.
The sector will meet the basic needs of the country's armed services for
high-tech weaponry and improve its research and development capability for high
technology industrial applications, said Jin Zhuanglong, spokesperson for the
Commission of Science, Techonology and Industry for National Defense.
China also plans to improve its fundamental capability in basic science and
research and in science and development infranstructure in the coming five
years, he said.
Jin said China would put in place a new framework that combines its military
research and development capability with civilian sectors, including a mechanism
allowing the military and civilian sectors to interact with each other to ensure
fast progress in the military sector.
On major tasks for the coming five years, Jin listed development of nuclear
energy, a manned space program, a lunar probe program, civilian planes, and
shipbuilding.
China will work hard to achieve R&D breakthroughs in key technologies for
the country's shipbuilding sector while giving priority to the country's three
shipbuilding bases along the Pan-Bohai Rim in north China, the Yangtze River
Delta and the Pearl River Delta, he said.
The country's military sector has reported an average annual increase of 20
percent in production of civilian goods in the past five years. In 2002, the
whole sector became profitable after eight years' of
losses.
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