Machine tool manufacturing will give top priority to innovation in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), a senior industry insider announced yesterday in Beijing.

Answering the call from Chinese President Hu Jintao to turn China into an innovation-oriented country, the China Machine Tool and Tool Builders' Association has pledged to enhance the country's independent innovation capability and develop core technologies.

Association President Wu Bailin disclosed at a press conference yesterday that the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission are jointly drafting a plan to boost development of the country's computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools in the coming five years.

He said that investment in development of CNC machine tools will be huge.

CNC machine tools are advanced machines for the manufacturing industry and are widely used in industries involved in railways, aviation, shipbuilding and automobiles.

"You can introduce advanced technology, but cannot purchase the core technologies nor innovation capabilities," Wu quoted a senior official of the Ministry of Science and Technology as saying.

Therefore, fostering independent innovation capabilities is of special importance in order to substantially improve the industry's technology level and to enhance the competitiveness of Chinese machine tool enterprises.

However, Wu continued, independent innovation is not contradictory to introducing foreign advanced technologies.

"You cannot close your door to innovation," he said.

Geng Liangzhi, vice-president of the association, said that China had made great progress in the development of CNC machine tools in the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).

The China CNC Machine Tool Fair to be held in Shanghai from February 14-17 will showcase the achievements of the industry in the past years.

With a total exhibition floor space of more than 46,000 square metres, the fair will display more 500 sets of advanced CNC machine tools from more than 530 enterprises, mainly Chinese firms.

In 2000, the output of China's metal-cutting CNC machine tools was less than 14,000 sets. But in 2005, the figure is estimated to be more than 60,000 sets.

To further boost the development of CNC machine tools, the association will co-operate with related government departments to hold forums on the industry, including one devoted to the co-operation between the machine tool manufacturers across the Taiwan Straits.

Forecasting the development prospects for the industry in 2006, Yu Chengting, executive vice-chairman of the association, said the country's machine tool industry is expected to grow by about 15 per cent, with its sales revenue reaching about 150 billion yuan (US$18.75 billion).

At the same time, the country is expected to import about US$11 billion worth of machine tools and tool products this year, representing an increase over the 2005 estimated figure of US$10 billion.

Although the growth rate in the industry has slowed down, forecasts of double-digit growth in 2006 are based on strong domestic demand for large and heavy-duty advanced CNC machine tools.

At present, the ratio of CNC machine tools in China is only about 6 to 7 per cent of the total in use, while in developed countries the ratio is much higher. Therefore, China still is a large market for advanced CNC machine tools, including those from foreign countries, Yu said.

Major end-users include firms involved in aerospace and aviation, shipbuilding, railways, the power industry, the metallurgical industry, and vehicles.

For instance, the country's railway sector will invest about 150 billion yuan (US$18.75 billion) annually in improving and expanding the country's railway networks between 2006 and 2020. Total investment in the sector in the coming 15 years will hit 2 trillion yuan (US$250 billion).

A large part of the investment will go into the manufacturing of advanced rolling stock and locomotives for high-speed railway projects, which will create abundant business opportunities for both domestic and overseas CNC machine tool makers, Yu said.