The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) is investing 198.6 mln yuan to build a third-generation mobile technology (3G) testing lab, the official People's Posts and Telecommunications News reported.

The move will help promote the development of TD-SCDMA, China's homegrown 3G standard, and support the commercialization of 3G in general, the newspaper, controlled by the MII reported.

Construction of the 3G lab will be undertaken by the China Academy of Telecommunications Research, which is under the MII, and part of the construction and bidding work have already started, the newspaper said.

Also included in the plan is a 3G mobile handset testing lab.

It is expected to become the country's key TD-SCDMA testing center, and to provide a suitable environment to develop the fledgling 3G standard, the newspaper said.

Last July, Nortel Networks Corp and Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd jointly established a lab to test TD-SCDMA and promote its commercialization.

The three 3G standards vying for approval by the Chinese government are WCDMA, which is widely believed to be the most commercially developed among the three; Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ: QCOM) -developed CDMA2000; and TD-SCDMA.

TD-SCDMA is jointly developed by Datang Mobile and Germany's Siemens AG (Xetra: 723610.DE ) .