"To improve the quality of foreign investment plays a key role in ensuring healthy economic development," Liang Baohua told China Daily.

"And to fulfill the goal, Jiangsu should attract more multinational R&D centers."

Liang said economic development would be boosted by the influx of advanced technology, managerial expertise and professionals from overseas R&D centers.

By the year of 2006, about 50 multinational companies had established R&D centers in Jiangsu, mainly in its capital Nanjing, and southern economic hubs including Wuxi and Suzhou, a notable increase since 2000.

The affluent province has long lagged behind its counterparts such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong in attracting world technology giants' R&D centers.

Although it has remained among those provinces which has attracted the largest amount of overseas investment, up to 80 percent of the investment has gone directly into manufacturing sectors as many overseas brands have kept key technology confidential.

"The lack of R&D centers have hindered the province's technological innovation," Xu Dongqing, a researcher with Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Liang said Jiangsu has advantages for such R&D centers.

The province boasts huge human resources and well trained professionals from the largest number of universities and other educational institutes in the country.

Also, the province promises lower costs for R&D than other first-line regions such as Beijing and Shanghai.

The province has already established its reputation as a manufacturing base in the country, with large industrial clusters in key cities.

For instance, 80 percent of the components needed for computer assembly can be bought in the Kunshan, which produces about one third of the world's laptops.

In addition to appealing for more foreign investment, the province also plans to establish economic zones abroad, in cooperation with other countries.

For instance, among the first group of eight economic zones approved by the Ministry of Commerce to be set in foreign countries, Jiangsu has built up an industrial base in Cambodia to facilitate textile and manufacturing trade between the two countries.

Jiangsu Province, which accounted for 10.3 percent of the national GDP in 2006, posted a foreign trade volume of $284 billion last year, 16 percent of the total national figure.

According to the provincial bureau for foreign trade and economic cooperation, foreign direct investment soared to $17.4 billion last year, a quarter of the country's total.

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