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Sectors to get financial shot in arm Ministry to promote cooperation among govt, banks and enterprises

Greater efforts will be made to help manufacturing projects raise capital, after China made a number of breakthroughs in fields such as aviation and shipbuilding, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Luo Wen, director of the planning department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Luo Wen, director of the planning department at the MIIT, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily: "We will build platforms to promote cooperation among governments, banks and enterprises, on which we will recommend projects to banking institutions."

According to Luo, China Development Bank, State Development and Investment Corp, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China CITIC Bank are among the partners. He did not disclose the specific projects for investment.

China is pushing forward the Made in China 2025 strategy, as it seeks to tackle bottlenecks and make breakthroughs in 10 sectors, including aviation, new-energy vehicles and marine engineering equipment.

The move is part of the ministry's broader effort to promote investment in the manufacturing sector, which China aims to upgrade with cutting-edge technologies.

"Equipment is the core of the manufacturing industry. We will ramp up resources to focus on a group of projects which have good technological foundations and where breakthroughs are likely to be made within two to three years," Luo said.

China has already made progress in several sectors. Earlier this month, China's first domestically manufactured large passenger plane－the C919－made its debut test flight in Shanghai.

The flight came shortly after the nation debuted its first China-built aircraft carrier in Dalian, Liaoning province, demonstrating its manufacturing prowess to the world.

Zuo Shiquan, an engineering expert at the Beijing-based China Center for Information Industry Development, said robotics and high-end agricultural machinery equipments are highly likely to be among the candidates for financing.

Xiang Ligang, a telecom expert and CEO of industry website cctime.com, said that high-end microchips are also one of the top priorities.

To boost the development of homegrown chips, China has announced a number of plans to establish investment funds in the past three years, whose combined value exceeds 500 billion yuan ($72.6 billion), according to data from TF Securities.

One beneficiary is Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. It said it would be granted up to 150 billion yuan in financing between 2016 and 2020, from China Development Bank and Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund.