Private satellite firm Beijing Commsat Technology Development Co announced on Wednesday that it has received financing from the China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF). Experts said the move shows the government is paying more attention to the private sat-ellite internet sector.

This is the first time that the CIIF has been involved with a private space business, and it is also the seventh round of financing completed by Commsat, the Global Times learned.

This round of financing will be mainly used for research and industrialization of satellites, as well as recruitment of top talent in the industry, Commsat told the Global Times on Wednesday.

After the satellite internet sector was added to the country's "new infrastructure" program last April, domestic space firms have become more active, especially private ones that have mushroomed in recent years.

Founder and CEO of Commsat Xie Tao said on Wednesday that satellite internet is a boom-ing industry with national strategic significance, and therefore it has strong market pro-spects.

The number of domestic low-orbit satellites is expected to reach 3,000-6,000 in the next decade, Guotai Junan Securities reported. By 2030, China's overall market for satellite in-ternet could reach 100 billion yuan.

Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based space expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that this financing is a further indication of the rising significance that China attaches to satellite in-ternet as a new infrastructure project.

"The development of private spaceflight has been relatively fast, and Commsat has made some achievements in satellite application and small satellite manufacturing," said Pang, noting that the private satellite sector is getting more and more attention from the author-ities.