1,800 private companies in China have now licenses for research and production of weaponry 1312138

a

Defence & Security News - China

 
 
Friday, December 13, 2013 11:55 AM
 
1,800 private companies in China have now licenses for research and production of weaponry.

A document entitled Military-Civilian Integration Development Report of China in 2013 (hereinafter referred to as the report) was unveiled on December 12, 2013 in Beijing. The report says that China’s military industry has stepped up the pace of opening to private enterprises, as evidenced by that over 1,800 private enterprises have obtained the licenses for research and production of weaponry and equipment.

     
A document entitled Military-Civilian Integration Development Report of China in 2013 (hereinafter referred to as the report) was unveiled on December 12, 2013 in Beijing. The report, compiled by experts and scholars of the National Defense University (NDU) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is China’s first annual report on military-civilian integration development.
Chinese Defense Company Norinco booth in defense exhibition in Middle East.
     
The report, compiled by experts and scholars of the National Defense University (NDU) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is China’s first annual report on military-civilian integration development.

In July 2012, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the General Armaments Department (GAD) of the PLA jointly issued a document entitled the Implementation Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding the Entry of Private Capital into Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (hereinafter referred to as the opinions). The opinions points out that equal treatment shall be implemented for private investors and State-owned military industrial enterprises in such aspects as admission, bidding and tax incentives to expand the field and range in which private capitals are invested in defense science, technology and industry.

In 2012, the SASTIND issued the licenses for research and production of weaponry and equipment to more than 60 private enterprises. By now, a total of 1,800-odd enterprises have gained licenses, including 500-plus private ones that account for one-fourth of the total.

However, the report points out some issues about the scientific research and manufacture of Chinese weaponry and equipment in the field of military-civilian integrative development.

It claims that such situations of domestic military industrial groups as "self-contained systems, self-enclosed departments, omnipotent business, and separation between production and research" haven't been changed. The military-civilian shared usage of resources and major facilities is still in low degree.

Some military industrial units fall back on the overall advantages of their weapon systems and lean towards their internal units when distributing supporting tasks. They thereby use this to compete for state investments and beef up their merger and acquisition of those civilian supporting units, which keeps concentrating the tasks of weaponry and equipment research and manufacture in military industrial systems.

Even though some civilian units own the condition and capability for the tasks, their actual participation is still limited. This somehow has weakened competitiveness and innovation, making it so difficult as a result for those rapidly-emerging advanced technologies in the civilian domain to enter into the military industrial one in recent years.