The showcase high-tech projects form a major part of the government's plan for high-tech development in the next five years, drafted by the SDPC.

In the last two years, China has arranged for over 500 projects of this kind, of which over 130 are expected to be put into production by the end of this year.

The over 500 projects attracted 51.7 billion yuan (US$6.23 billion) investment, including governmental funding of 6.05 billion yuan (US$728.9 million).

These projects are expected to add 85.4 billion yuan (US$10.29 billion) to industrial and agricultural output of the country every year. They are expected to earn 16 billion yuan in profit and pay 7.8 billion yuan (US$939 million) in taxes to the government annually, the SDPC said.

Official figures showed that China's total production value of the high-tech industry soared to 1,910 billion yuan (US$230.12 billion) in 2000, compared with 1,310 billion yuan (US$157.83 billion) in 1998, with the average growth rate of 20.75 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The SDPC said that in 2000 the export of high-tech products accounted for 14.9 percent of the total export of industrial products, rising by 2.5 percentage points over 1998.

(Xinhua 08/21/2001)