Private enterprises in east China's affluent Zhejiang Province intend to invest more than one billion yuan (about US$120 million) in a key national hi-tech research and development program known as Program 863.

This will increase the province's total private investment in the program and related commercialization projects to two billion yuan (about US$240 million) as of 2003.

China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and more than 30 experts on areas including bio-medicine and new materials will come here in November to woo private investors for more than 700 projects of the Program 863, according to sources with the science and technology authorities of Zhejiang Province.

So far, the two sides have reached preliminary agreements on 13 projects, which may involve an estimated total investment of more than one billion yuan (US$120 million), said the local science and technology authorities.

China began to launch the first high technology R&D plan, named 863, because it was initiated by well-known scientists in March 1986. The program represents the country's highest scientific and technological standards, embracing projects related to the development of the national economy and overall national strength.

Both the MOST and the Zhejiang local science and technology authorities hope private enterprises' involvement in the 863 Program may facilitate the application and commercialization of science and technology R&D achievements.

With a booming private sector, Zhejiang boasts of over 700 billion yuan (US$84 billion) in private capital. The sector demands strongly for high technologies brought about by the Program 863, which it believes will help optimize its industrial structure.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2005)