Intel starts building $2.5-bln chip plant in China

U.S. computer chip giant Intel Corp. began on Saturday to build its first chipset plant in Asia, which involves 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first stage investment. Intel Chairman Craig Barrett attended the ground breaking ceremony of the plant, which is located in the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone in northeast China. "Intel's Dalian plant is a new breakthrough of economic and technological cooperation between China and the United States, and it will also be a push for the development of China's northeast, a former heavy industry base," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) The project, which was announced in March this year, is Intel's first chipset factory in Asia and part of its network of eight such facilities worldwide. The plant will go into production in 2010.