The China International Exposition of IT in the Manufacturing Industry opened on Thursday in Dongguan city, in south China's Guangdong province.
A total of 600 domestic and overseas companies such as IBM, HP, Legend, China Mobile, China Unicom, are taking part. Some seminars and forums will be organized during the event.
According to a five-year schedule of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese government is expected to set up a finance system based on information technology for manufacturing plants, an important component part of the national economy.
The Chinese government will allocate 800 million yuan (US$97 million) for the plan along with 1.3 billion yuan (US$157 million) appropriated by local governments and 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) funded from manufacturers.
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2002)