BEIJING — The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has moved to facilitate corporate cooperation along industrial chains to accelerate the industrialization of COVID-19 vaccines and expand production capacity to ensure the supply of vaccines, an official said on Jan 5.

Wang Jiangping, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said the country's production capacity will be steadily expanded while ensuring the quality and safety of vaccines.

Production plans will be properly arranged to maximize production potential and ensure the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, Wang said.

The ministry has established a special work team to track and coordinate vaccine production by key producers on a weekly basis.

To ensure a stable supply chain for vaccine production, the country has also stepped up efforts to achieve breakthroughs in the production of core materials, and helped match the supply and demand of upstream and downstream firms.

With 18 Chinese enterprises starting to build production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines so far, further improvement of the manufacturing capacity of the inactivated vaccines will allow China to meet its huge vaccination demand, according to the MIIT.

Zhang Jin, a manager at the China National Biotec Group, said the company will implement a plan to expand production capacity and to ensure that more than one billion doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines are produced this year.