BEIJING -- Pearl River Delta, an export-oriented region severely hit by the financial crisis, aims to become a "significant innovation center" in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, according to a statement by China's top economic planner Thursday.

In next three years, about 100 state laboratories for engineering innovation and research and development will be established under a plan released Thursday by the National Development and Reform Commission.

The plan sets the goal that by 2012, three to five industrial clusters powered by high-technology should come into place, generating more than 100 billion yuan (about 14.6 billion US dollars) in aggregate industrial output.

The delta region was also expected to incubate three-to-five multinationals whose annual sales would reach 100 billion yuan by 2012.

Manufacturing powered by high-technology should generated at least 30 percent of the region's total industrial output by 2020.