BEIJING -- China has published information on military equipment research projects on an official weapon procurement website for the first time, to encourage compitition in the formerly closed sector, the PLA Daily reported.

The procurement bureau of the equipment development department under the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the armament departments of the Army and Navy have released over 800 projects that will receive a funding of 3.7 billion yuan ($557.2 million).

The military will continue to update the information on weain.mil.cn, which was launched in January 2015 in an move to open China's defense sector to private enterprises and boost competition in military procurement.

According to Lyu Bin from the website, the information has already clocked-up 300,000 visitors, and over 800 enterprises have sought further information at off-line consultation points in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Xi'an cities.

At present, the website has over 9,000 enterprise and institution users. It has issued over 2,000 piece of information on military procurement since last January.