With days to go before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visits China accompanied by a 55-member industry delegation, Confederation of Indian Industry on Monday said the country provided ample business opportunities and incentives in sectors like information technology, drugs and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

According to a survey conducted by CII on China's knowledge-based industries, there were enough reasons for the Indian industry to look east, which included incentives for investment like reduction in local and national taxes, land rentals and import and export duties.

With the IT products and application consumption in the small and medium enterprises in China expected to touch $12 billion this year, an increase of 23 per cent from 2001, and $27 billion in 2006, the domestic IT industry has a huge market to tap, CII said in a statement in New Delhi.

In the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector, China is likely to emerge as the fifth largest market globally by 2010 with revenues of over $24 billion, more than triple its current size.

"Such growth would catapult China's market, which currently ranks seventh, to a position right behind the drug markets of France and Germany. Driving this growth are China's ongoing economic development and its recent entry into the World Trade Organisation," CII said in its survey.

The most promising opportunities are expected to be in the areas of innovative ethical or prescription, drugs and differentiated over-the-counter products. The market for ethical drugs would climb to $19 billion by 2010, it said.

Suggesting ways for domestic biotech companies to enter the Chinese market, CII said these were exporting, licensing and setting up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise or joint venture.