A view of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)

The province hit hard by the coronavirus in 2020 - Hubei Province in Central China, vowed to push forward the building of its memory chip industry, aiming to become the country's base of memory, an official plan revealed on Monday.

The province planned to speed up the developments of chips of IoT (Internet of Things) and for the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, and to make up the shortfall of wafer package assembly and testing, said the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for Hubei's Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

The province boasts a number of memory chipmakers. For instance, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., located in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei, is a leading IDM memory company focusing on the design, production, and sales of 3D NAND flash memory. 

However, some unfinished chip projects also exposed blind and problematic investments in the semiconductor industry. The controversial semiconductor maker in Hubei, Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co grounded its projects to a halt in mid-2020 due to a lack of funds. China's top economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission has warned local governments of potential risks and requested that they avoid blind investments.

In addition to IC industry which China has been ramping up efforts to break the bottleneck of advanced technologies so as to shake off foreign dependence, blockchain technology was also chosen by Hubei for further development. 

"The deep integration of blockchain technology together with the artificial intelligence, big data and IoT will be pushed forward," the plan noted, adding to build a nation-wide influential blockchain innovation and development cluster. 

The province's economy dived 5 percent in 2020 due to the havoc of the COVID-19 in 2020. Following a strong recovery, it set its GDP growth target for 2021 at more than 10 percent. 

A Foreign Ministry Special Promotion Event for Hubei Province with the theme of "Heroic Hubei: Reborn for New Glories" will be held Monday afternoon. 

Global Times