China's Construction Machinery Industry PromisingChina's construction machinery market is expected to become the biggest in the world in five to 10 years.A senior official from the State Economic and Trade Commission said recently that the industry will grow by 10 percent annually in the 10th Five-Year plan period (2001-2005). The country's construction machinery industry is still quiet at the moment but has been boosted by booming building projects and the western development program, said Zhou Jianping, deputy director of the Technology and Equipment Department of the commission. Building equipment will be needed for major projects such as the Three Gorges Project and the West-to-East Gas Pipeline Projects, Zhou said, adding tens of billions of yuan will be poured into the industry. "Each year, five to eight percent of building funds will go towards buying equipment," the official said. According to him, China currently has 1,008 manufacturers in the construction machinery sector which supply 60 percent of the domestic market demand, the remainder being met by foreign machinery manufacturers. "China has imported machinery products worth more than one billion US dollars each year for the past five years," said Qi Jun, president of the China National Construction Machinery Corp. "New projects will be worth several billion US dollars," he said. "The government is to work out policies that will provide a much more market-oriented and transparent environment for fairer competition between domestic and foreign manufacturers," said Zhou from the State Economic and Trade Commission. The injection of foreign investment in China's construction machinery sector will be much easier after China's expected accession to the World Trade Organization, he added. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |