A series of plans will be implemented next month in seven high-tech industrial zones in Northeast China's Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, aimed at helping to revitalize traditional industries in those regions, said Shi.

This includes commercializing the latest high-tech advances among related industrial sectors and encouraging private high-tech firms to cooperate with State-owned firms to jointly develop new technologies, said Zhao Yuhai, director of the ministry's Torch High-Tech Industry Development Center.

Private high-tech firms across the country have played an active role over the past decade in boosting regional economic growth, ever since the first State-level high-tech zone was established in 1991 in Beijing.

Thus, the ministry will encourage more private high-tech firms to spring up in those three provinces to help spur on local economic development, said Zhao.

Shi said the Ministry of Science and Technology will also give continuous support to the Zhongguancun high-tech zone -- a model of consistent economic growth for Beijing as well as for the country.

"High-tech zones are becoming increasingly important to restructuring industrial sectors," Shi said.

"The ministry will give an impetus for the Zhongguancun park through international cooperative programs."

Shi said a Sino-German computer software park has been set up in Zhongguancun with the support of his ministry to help develop the software industry in the capital.

As for protecting the rights and interests of rural workers, Zhao said the Ministry of Science and Technology will work with the Ministry of Land Resources and the State Development and Reform Commission to rationally use land resources in the process of developing technological zones.

These moves are intended to avoid expanding onto land designated for agricultural use.

China now has 53 State-level high-technology zones, creating remarkable additional industrial output year-on-year over the past two decades.

Last year alone, total industrial output generated by the 53 zones hit more than 1,730 billion yuan (US$208 billion), up 34 percent over 2002.

Meanwhile, export volume registered US$57 billion, up 73 percent over 2002, according to the ministry's latest statistics.

By 2005, the export volume from the 53 zones is expected to reach US$60 billion.

In the next 10 to 20 years, the 53 high-tech zones will produce technological breakthroughs which can be competitive in world markets in such areas as information and biological sciences, ministry sources said.

High-tech industrial production from the 53 zones has accounted for half of the country's total industrial output.

Industries such as micro-electronics, telecommunications, computers and software, biological medicines, new energy resources and production of high-tech materials have sprung up in the 53 zones.

(China Daily February 12, 2004)