Beijing has shown strong determination to build itself into a microelectronics industrial base with its recent announcement of an ambitious development plan.

According to the plan, in the next few years, Beijing will set up 20 large-scale chip production lines, about 250 integrated circuit design companies and 20 chip encapsulation and testing companies.

Meanwhile, to guarantee necessary investment, the Beijing municipal government is considering the establishment of a research and development fund, which is expected to be jointly sponsored by the government, state-owned enterprises, and relevant investing institutes.

Beijing is so far the largest research and development base of electronics and telecommunication devices as well as the largest consuming market of microelectronics products in China.

It now has two chip production lines and another three are currently under construction.

In February this year, the Beijing municipal government unleashed a series of preferential policies regarding land-use, credit loans and taxes for the development of the microelectronics industry.

(People's Daily 05/21/2001)