China is striving to become a dairy production power in the world in 20 years through larger investment and technology upgrading.

Liu Yanhua, vice minister of Science and Technology, said here Friday, "In the past five years, the country has invested 150 million yuan (18.5 million U.S. dollars) in developing key technologies in the dairy industry."

Zhang Yuan, professor at the China Agricultural University who coordinates the national project, said the technological breakthroughs include industrialization of cow embryonic transplants, standardized breeding, cow disease surveillance systems and quality control systems for dairy products.

The country's accumulated investment in key dairy research projects totaled 700 million yuan, of which 150 million yuan came from the central government, 120 million yuan from local governments and 440 million yuan from dairy industry.

Thanks to technological upgrading, China's top four dairy producers manufactured and sold products worth 5 billion yuan eachin 2004. Well-known brands such as Yili, Mengniu and Sanyuan are well received by domestic consumers. They have developed a number of hi-tech products such as cancer-prophylactic milk and high-end infant formula milk powder.