The added value of the high-tech industries in east China's Jiangsu Province, one of the country's major economic powerhouses, accounted for 15 percent of its industrial total in 1999, up from less than 10 percent in 1996.

Nearly 1,000 high-tech enterprises have been established in the province, and they include the information industry, bio-medicine, new materials, energy, and machinery and electronics, and their annual output value has reached nearly 200 billion yuan.

The province has issued a series of preferential policies to support the development of high-tech industries, and total investment in this sector reached 30 billion yuan over the past three years.

According to local sources, Jiangsu has set up four state-level and ten provincial-level new and high-tech zones housing one-quarter of the province's high-tech enterprises.