Officials from the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai will provide more investment and give preferential treatment to companies engaged in the research & development (R&D) of nano-technology.

Zhu Jiping, director of the commission, said: "The 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) investment injected in the nano-technology sector in 2001 has laid a solid foundation, as Shanghai has taken the technological lead in some aspects like nano-biology, nano-medicine and nano-electronics throughout the country."

He added: "We now are pushing the development of nano-technology into a second phase -- gaining the independent intellectual property rights (IPRs) of the core technologies in the gradual process of industrialization."

At present, the goal of the local government's working agenda is to accelerate the application of nano-technologies to industries such as construction materials, textiles and garments, automotive products, environmental protection, energy and utilities and other traditional sectors.

Niu Xiaoming, director of the Shanghai Nano-technology Promotion Center (SNPC), said: "In the second phase, we will try to help companies in the nano sector to further improve their advanced technologies directly oriented to market demand both home and abroad."

The SNPC is striving to establish an information network linking all professionals in the sector, thus enhancing the exchange of the latest technological trends among companies in the city and will create an ideal environment for innovation.

Currently, the six nano-technology R&D centers -- built in Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Donghua University, East China Normal University, Shanghai University and East China University of Science & Technology -- are exchanging their latest research results with each other.

(China Daily May 13, 2002)