The People's Liberation Army (PLA) continues its campaign to build a military-industrial complex in China by enticing Chinese firms to be part of it with a combination of huge contracts and perks.

China has no privately-run military-industrial complex, an omission that stifles its quest to develop and build modern weapons and equipment. What it does have are inefficient state-run industries more concerned with generating money that developing quality weapons at par with those of the western world, especially the United States.

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The PLA says it will fund 2,000 research projects involving military equipment and weapons for private Chinese firms and institutes that choose to accept the offer. Experts said this unprecedented move will boost military-civilian integration and upgrade military technologies.

The Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission, the government body headed by Chinese president Xi Jinping that controls the PLA, recently released guidelines about this project.

The department said the PLA plans to invest 870 million this year for research in shared technology and other research. The money will be used to fund these 2,000 projects.

The PLA is encouraging companies and institutes to apply. One of the projects concerns the temperature adaptability of solid propellants used in missiles and $145,000 has been set aside for this purpose.

The PLA believes involving private companies in military technology research will reduce costs, boost military-civilian integration and help upgrade military technology.

PLA-owned and state-owned companies have many restrictions in developing new technologies due to a dearth of manpower and resources and an intractable bureaucracy.

Private Chinese firms have been allowed to carry out research and manufacture military equipment since 2005. Since that time, however, only 1,000 private firms have been allowed entry into China's defense industry.

The department has liberalized the weapons sector, and has curtailed restrictions on the types of weapons that private firms are allowed to develop.