Signaling an increasingly open technology trading market, China gave the green light to the inauguration of the country's first privately owned technology exchange in Dalian on Sunday.

Previously, technology exchange houses were all affiliated with governmental organizations in China.

According to Mu Yonghui, board chairman of the Dalian Yicheng Technology Exchange Market, the investment will reach 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) over the long term, but he said he does not expect the exchange to yield profits soon.

The businessman, with six years of experience operating an electronic device market in Dalian, said that Jiang Zemin's report at the opening of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China reinforced his confidence in the development of the private sector.

Despite the country's improving scientific research power, there is a lack of effective channels to commercialize technological results. Less than 20 percent of China's scientific results are applied commercially each year, according to estimates.

The influx of private capital into technology trading is expected to bring innovation to the management mechanism of the trading system, said a research fellow with the Dalian Chemical and Physical Research Institute.

Private investors injected some 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) into promoting high-tech sales in Dalian over the past two years, said Xu Xiaofei, director of the Dalian Technology and Science Bureau. These private firms offer low-cost but good services, he said.

By the end of June, the number of registered private firms in China reached 2.2 million and employed 29.3 million people, statistics show.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2002)