BEIJING- China's top economic planner has allocated 660 million yuan ($103.6 million) of special funds to guide cloud computing research, as part of the government's efforts to boost the sector's development, the China Securities Journal reported Friday.

The funds, the first batch of their kind, were designated to 15 cloud computing programs scattered across the country's five cloud-computing pilot cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuxi, according to the report.

Internet giants Alibaba and Baidu received more than 100 million yuan to lead the projects while several other companies, including Shanghai East-China Computer Co Ltd and Beijing Teamsun Technology Co Ltd, received some 15 million to 20 million yuan, the report quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The news gave a brief lift to related stocks despite the downbeat sentiment on the broader market. Stocks of East-China Computer Co Ltd, rose 2.23 percent in the morning trading to end the session at 23.4 yuan per share.

The business-led projects will experience a five-year assessment period, through which the National Development and Reform Commission will follow and evaluate the process to decide whether to inject more money, according to the source.

The report also said China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has drafted a framework document on the development of cloud computing during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

Tang Gang, an official with the MIIT, said China will see the effects of applying the technology by the end of the 2011-2015 period, but its large-scale application won't emerge till the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

According to estimates by Orient Securities, the cloud computing sector in China could be worth 750 billion to 1 trillion yuan over the next five years, about 15 percent of the value of strategic emerging industries.

(Source: Xinhua)