China's technology imports reached US$17.95 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 45.2 percent over last year, reported the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Monday.

Contracts for copyright licenses constitute the largest part of the total contracted fund, with a year-on-year growth of 57.5 percent.

The European Union (EU) is the largest technology exporter to China with a contracted value of US$7.54 billion, up 32 percent.

Japan and the United States ranked the second and third respectively as China's technology imports from Japan reached US$4.45 billion and that from the United States, US$2.89 billion.

The value of imported technology made by foreign-funded enterprises rose by 49 percent to US$8.69 billion, accounting for 48.4 percent of the total.

Chinese state-owned enterprises' technology imports were valued at US$8.04 billion, up 55.4 percent.

About 22.2 percent of the country's technology imports, or US$3.98 billion, came from the railway transport sector.

Technology imports in the electronic and communication equipment manufacturing sector rose by 123.7 percent to US$3.49 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2006)