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

Technology royalties were 14.76 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 67 percent of the overall contract volume, and contracts for technology licensing amounted 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 services and consultancy 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.

Contracts with Japan totaled 5.24 billion dollars, 23.8 percent of the total value, and the United States 4.23 billion dollars, 19.2 percent of the total.

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

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

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)