China approved 10,538 technology import contracts in 2006, involving a contract value of US$22.02 billion, up 15.6 percent year on year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

 

Technology royalties amounted to US$14.76 billion, cornering 67 percent of the overall contract volume, with contracts for technology licensing amounting to 7.28 billion dollars, or 33 percent of the contracts, up 42.8 percent year-on-year.

 

With a contractual value of 94.7 billion dollars, Sino-foreign contracts involving technology and consultancy services rank second on the technology import list, accounting for 23.5 percent.

 

The European Union was the largest source of technology imports, accounting for 2,597 contracts, involving a contractual value of 8.66 billion dollars, 39.3 percent of the total.

 

Second and third were Japan and the US with contracts totaling 5.24 billion dollars or 23.8 percent of the total value and 4.23 billion dollars or 19.2 percent of the total respectively.

 

State-owned enterprises saw a contract volume of US$8.99 billion, a mild decline from 2005, accounting for 40.8 percent of the total.

 

Contracts were mainly accorded to technology-intensive sectors such as electronics, communications equipment manufacturing and railway transportation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2007)