According to the Chinese Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai, the Chinese government has allocated a special fund of 700 million yuan ($86.4 million) for companies to build up their own brands with proprietary intellectual property rights (IPRs) in 2006.

This is one of several measures the Chinese government plans to adopt in 2006 in order to encourage companies to develop their own brands, said Mr. Bo at a meeting on brand building that was recently held in Beijing. He added that although some Chinese brands such as Haier, Legend, Huawei and some traditional brands like Tsingdao will be models to lead the campaign of brand building, Chinese companies in general has a poor reputation for building brands – only four of the top 500 world brands are Chinese.

In addition to financial support, the government will also assist established brands to develop new products, make technological advances and set up research centress and sales network.

Mr Bo also pledged to enhance the protection of IPRs so as to ensure the healthy development of Chinese brands with proprietary IPRs.