The nation's civil aviation sector is stepping up an informatization project and security to strengthen air transport controls to ensure flight safety and security, China Daily reported Thursday.

"By adopting biological sensing technology, chemical analysis and artificial intelligence, we are developing a type of security detector to be used in airports," said Huang Rongshun, vice-director of the Second Research Institute of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

In addition, an information security management system for airports has also been developed, Huang said, speaking at the Sixth Informatization Forum of CAAC yesterday.

According to CAAC's guideline for the10th Five-Year Plan on informatization, the nation's air control system will be built into a more comprehensive network oriented to flying safety, efficient management and decision-making support, as well as serving air transport enterprises.

The system will ensure better flight plans, more timely flight intelligence, and better meteorological information supervision.

The guidelines also urged civil aviation enterprises to use information technology to modernize their operations and management.

Airlines and airport companies must heighten their informatization efforts to improve their competitive abilities in international markets, Ren Yingli, vice-director of CAAC's Department of Personnel and Education, said at the forum.

Meanwhile, e-business in the sector also needs to be widely promoted and a platform for air logistics information should be set up, he said.

In fact, the nation's civil aviation sector has injected a lot into informatization in recent years.

According to a survey conducted by Beijing-based CCID Consulting Company, the civil aviation industry will witness a 5-plus billion yuan (US$600 million) worth of input in the information technology application before the end of this year.

The number has increased by 21 percent over last year. Most of the economic input focuses on hardware construction.

But Huang predicted that in the coming years, software development and applications will become the focus of increasing demand.

(China Daily December 2, 2004)