China's Ministry of Commerce has appointed 15 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Changchun, Hangzhou, Changsha, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Tonghua, Taizhou, Zibo and Guilin as national export bases for medical products.

The establishment of such bases aims to better push forward China's medical product exports, optimize industrial structure and encourage industrial concentration in certain areas, according to sources with the Science and Technology Department under the ministry.

Although China's export volume of medical products in 2004 hit a record high of 12 billion US dollars, its export structure is not rational enough due to weak independent innovation capacity, the ministry said.

The total medical industry output of these 15 cities was close to 200 billion yuan (24.7 billion US dollars) in 2004, accounting for over 50 percent of the country's total.

The medical product export of these 15 cities approached 5 billion US dollars in 2004, accounting for 40 percent of the country's total, figures show.

Source: Xinhua