China's top state-owned chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup said Sunday it will set up a new memory chip business group, as part of a national drive to achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductor technology.

China is the world’s largest importer of a type of memory chip called DRAM, but remains reliant on imports due to a lack of technical ability. The country has recently ramped up efforts to reduce this reliance, however. 

Unigroup’s new business group will specialize in DRAM chips, under the leadership of Diao Shijing, former director of information technology at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the company said. Diao has been co-president of Unigroup since May 2018.

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Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com)