WUHAN — China plans to build 10 to 20 professional biotechnology and medicine zones each with a total output value of 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) by 2020, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology said on April 28.

Five to 10 professional biological manufacturing zones will also be established each with the same amount of output value by that time, said Zhang Zhaofeng, who is in charge of biological and medical technology, at a meeting on social development and sci-tech innovation held in Wuhan, capital city of Central China’s Hubei province.

China has ranked second worldwide in the number of published papers and biotechnology patents for five consecutive years, according to the ministry.

In 2015 alone, China witnessed the publication of more than 80,000 life science papers and applications for over 20,000 biotechnology patents, it said.

More efforts are needed to boost the use of biological big data and protect biological resources, as well as to develop new vaccines and antibodies with independent intellectual property rights, it said.