Foreign-funded enterprises in the fields of transportation, residential development and offshore oil exploitation will enjoy tax benefits when they buy Chinese-made machinery and equipment.

The State Administration of Taxation and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) jointly made the announcement in a newly-publicized regulation.

The regulation came into effect on July 1, 2006.

The Chinese government has laid out plans for establishing a group of competitive machine manufacturing firms by 2010 in order to reinvigorate its machine industry.

In a government document published in June, China lists 16 categories of key equipment and machinery as priorities.

The categories include large machinery used in clean and efficient power-generation, large and complete sets of petro-chemical equipment, major coal mining machinery, large shipping vessels, high-speed trains, large precision machine tools, and key equipment used in making integrated circuitry.

The government said in the document that it would launch a package of support measures for the independent development of major equipment that would gradually make the country self-sufficient in machine design, manufacturing and operation.

Editor: Donald