The State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Information Industry and the Ministry of Science and Technology are drafting measures to push ahead application of information technology in large and medium-sized State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Xu Guanhua, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, said in Beijing at the opening of the three-day national conference on application of CAD and CIMS in manufacturing ventures on December 16 that the use of computer aided design (CAD) and computer integrated manufacturing systems (CIMS) in State-owned enterprises of pillar industries will improve their technological innovation capacity and market competitiveness.

China plans to initiate CAD or CIMS technology in over 90 percent of the large and medium-sized State-owned manufacturing firms by the end of 2010.

Xu said, information technology involving micro-electronic and software applications has had a great impact on world development.

He pledged that government departments concerned will create favorable conditions for the manufacturing ventures in fields of technical development, risk investment and listing to make major upgrades.

So far, over 90 percent of China's key firms in engineering design and machinery industry have adopted CAD technology, and quite a number of ventures in over a dozen industries have applied CIMS in production and management. This will help them shorten the time needed to design products and raise their product quality.

To date, China has held CAD and CIMS training programs for over one million technicians. (Xinhua)