The government is encouraging its military industries to develop more products for civilian use and to co-ordinate the use of science and technology for national defence with their use in civilian industries.

Military industries, with their advanced science and technologies, should play an increasingly important role in bolstering the development of the national economy as well as in upgrading and updating traditional industries, a senior official from the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence said yesterday.

The official, Zhang Yunchuan, minister of the commission, made the statement at a working conference which opened yesterday in Chongqing in Southwest China.

Since the late 1970s, the government has shifted its emphasis in military industries to manufacturing products for civilian use.

After over 20 years of growth, military industries have developed their own processes for the research and development of civilian products, Zhang said.

Statistics from the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence indicated that, from January to September, sales revenues of civilian products made by military industrial enterprises topped 85.9 billion yuan (US$10.35 billion), up 37.5 per cent compared with the figures for the same period last year.

At the same time, progress has been made in the rectification of product structure and a dramatic rise has been seen in the proportion of hi-tech products.

Auto manufacturing by military industries also showed a steady growth, with 540,000 cars being sold from January to September, a 12.3 per cent rise compared with figures for the same period last year.

A group of conglomerates have emerged from the country's military industries and now compete in the global market, Zhang said.

Harbin Aircraft Industry Group in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and the Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Ltd in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province together earned a combined revenue of more than 2 billion yuan (US$241 million) last year.

To date, 34 military industry enterprises have been listed on the market, according to Zhang.

(China Daily October 30, 2003)