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State to Fund SME Technology Upgrades
Starting this year, the State will allocate 800 million yuan (US$96.4 million) annually to fuel technology development in small and medium-sized firms, a senior scientific official revealed Friday.
Nurturing small and medium-sized firms is one of the jobs listed in the Scientific Development Blueprint for the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), said Vice-Minister of Science and Technology Deng Nan at a conference Friday in Beijing.
The conference was held to elaborate the blueprint and lay out the tasks for regional scientific administrators.
Statistics from the State Economic and Trade Commission indicates that the number of small and medium-sized firms constitute 98 per cent of the country's total industrial sector.
The money will be used to help these firms upgrade technology and improve equipment, said Deng.
Accelerating agricultural development through advanced technology is another big section of the science development plan, Deng stressed.
The Ministry of Science and Technology has allocated 100 million yuan (US$12 million) this year to develop new farming techniques and to teach farmers how to apply these techniques in agricultural production, Deng said.
With regard to the widely discussed western development campaign, Deng said her ministry will organize regional scientific departments, especially in more developed areas, to focus on such fields as high efficiency use of water resources, and commercialization of herbal medicines, which are crucial to the economic improvement of western areas.
To ensure all the investment in these scientific projects pays off, the State will invite experts, including foreign experts, to evaluate the feasibility and operation of all aspects of the project, said Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua.
Xu called on regional scientific administrations to support more on technological innovation, particularly patented technology, in order to activate local economic development.
The Scientific Development Blueprint for the 10th Five-Year Plan period, which has been officially announced by the State Development Planning Commission, also stresses the development of high-tech industries, such as computer software, pharmaceuticals and communications.
By 2005, high-tech industries are expected to make up 6 per cent of the country's gross domestic production, compared with the present 4 per cent, according to the blueprint.
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Sinopec, BP in US$2.7b Contract
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) signed a contract with a British firm Friday to build a petrochemicals complex that is expected to be the largest of its kind in Asia when it comes on stream in 2005.
Under the US$2.7 billion deal, BP Chemicals controls 50 per cent of the Shanghai-based joint venture. Sinopec takes a 30 per cent stake while Sinopec subsidiary Shanghai Petrochemical Co takes the remaining 20 per cent.
The venture is expected to be set up in mid-September, with the aim of developing the capacity to produce 900,000 tons of ethylene a year.
Sinopec President Wang Jiming said: "The project is the largest joint venture between the two companies, and we believe it will greatly improve the competitiveness of China's petrochemicals industry.''
With the deal, BP, one of the foreign shareholders in Sinopec, has become one of the biggest foreign investors in China.
BP Chemicals (China) President Graham Hunt said: "The good relationship between the two companies, reinforced by the deal, will lay a solid foundation for us to expand co-operation in the future.''
BP's success is mirrored by Sinopec's other foreign shareholder, Exxon Mobil, which is at work on another large petrochemicals project.
Earlier this week, Sinopec said it plans to build a 600,000-ton-a-year ethylene cracker in a Sinopec refinery in East China's Fujian Province, with Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco. Sinopec takes half the stake while the other two share the rest.
Sourcing half its petrochemicals product demand from imports, China has forged links with foreign giants to help it build large petrochemicals plants.
The country is expected to double its ethylene capacity to about 8 million tons within the next five to six years through the launch of several joint complexes.
In Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, Germany's BASF AG and Sinopec are constructing a US$2.65 billion integrated petrochemicals site to turn out 650,000 tons of ethylene annually by 2004.
The 50-50 joint venture is to be the nation's third largest petrochemicals plant after the US$4 billion project between the China National Offshore Oil Corp and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Guangdong Province.
The Guangdong complex is to output 800,000 tons of ethylene annually by 2005.
Matt Flanagan, director of the Beijing office of Accenture's Global Energy and Chemicals, said joint ventures were a win-win solution for both companies, combining the strength of domestic firms' brands with the technology and management of foreign companies.
Source: China Daily
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