Liu Jibin, minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said Monday that China will encourage the industrialization of military technology for civilian purposes.

Apart from fulfilling mandatory military production, the country's military industry is also being urged to become more market-orientated, and become increasingly integrated with local economic expansion, according to sources attending a national meeting of the China Association for Peaceful Use of Military Industrial Technology.

The production capacity of military industrial firms that are backward in terms of technology and waste energy should be cut, Liu said.

Enterprises related to military industry and based in western China should make full use of their advantages in order to offer their expertise and products to accommodate the demands of western development, he said.

Liu said that military industrial businesses that churn out civilian products may raise funds by issuing bonds, getting listed on the stock market or launching joint ventures.

Liu said it has been a world trend to channel resources previously used for national defense into serving the national economy and benefiting the people.

China, which began to shift its military industrial technology to civilian application in the late 1970s, now sees civilian products make up 80 percent of the national defense sector's total output, the minister said.

The China Association for Peaceful Use of Military Industrial Technology, founded in 1995, should serve as a think-tank for the State Council to promote the peaceful use of military industrial technology, he said.

To that end, the association can help to work out related strategies and policies, and conduct feasibility studies for projects, Liu said.

The association, which has 535 members, should also work more with foreign organizations that transfer military products to civilian use, and help Chinese military industrial firms export these civilian products, he said.

Monday's meeting was presided over by Zou Jiahua, the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

(China Daily 12/19/2000)