Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) jointly released the Opinions on Encouraging Export of Technologies (hereinafter to be referred as “Opinions”) so as to maintain the stable growth of foreign trade, optimize export structure, promote rapid growth of technologies export and raise the proportion of technologies export in technology trade.

With China's reform and opening-up, China has formed a relatively comprehensive industrial system with a large number of mature industrial technologies via independent innovation and the absorption of imported technologies. Since the 1990s, China has successfully exported technologies in fields of power, communications, building materials production, oil exploration, automobile manufacturing, chemical engineering and metallurgy, and has driven the export of a large number of complete sets of equipments, which has played an important role in improving the technical level of industries, optimization of export structure, and promoting economic and social development. However, due to late start of China's export of technologies, there still exists a big gap compared with the developed countries. Over the years, the amount of the export of technologies is much lower than that of the import of technologies, with a total deficit of about US$20 billion.

The Opinions puts forward policies and measures from perspectives of policy support, enhancement of international cooperation and improvement of management and service to bolster enterprises to proactively export mature industrialization technologies. Firstly, on the basis of implementing the existing policies, positively provide finance and insurance support, boost scientific research institutes to contract overseas R&D business and encourage technology enterprises to “go global”. Secondly, at the same time of further facilitating international technology cooperation, utilize various promotion platforms to organize and host promotions and fairs for the export of technologies and publicize China's superior technologies. And thirdly, intensify the construction of the service system of technology export, step up the management and protection of intellectual property rights and further perfect laws and regulations and the management system.

The release of the Opinions offers the political guarantee for boosting the export of mature technologies. MOC will take initiatives to implement the Opinions together with relevant departments to form a sound political environment for enterprises in exploring the international market by improving fiscal, financial and taxation policies, promoting the management and protection of intellectual property rights, and building a service system and a transaction platform for technology export.