China has pledged to channel its efforts into breaking new ground in science and technology in the coming years
　　
　　As 2006 unfolds, China plans to transform its economic development mode to usher in a new era of innovation. The National Conference on Science and Technology, held this month, provides a fresh impetus to that endeavor.
　　The strategy of “enhancing innovation capacity in science and technology and building an innovation-oriented country” was first put forward in the proposed 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in last October and at the Central Economic Conference that concluded in early December. These sessions called for implementing the strategy throughout China’s modernization program, putting scientific and technological innovation high on the national agenda.
　　The National Conference on Science and Technology, the first in the new century, also focused on innovation, which it affirmed would provide scientific and technological support for China’s economic and social development.
　　At the conference, President Hu Jintao personally presented the State Supreme Science and Technology Award, the nation’s top science honor, symbolizing the importance the Central Government places on science and scientists. Hu pointed out in the opening speech that outstanding scientists and talented science and technology personnel are a factor determining China’s scientific and technological development.
　　Vice Minister of Science and Technology Cheng Jinpei said earlier that the growing official incentives offered to scientists speak of the government’s efforts to promote scientific and technological innovation and to instill a high esteem for science and a respect for talented people in society.
　　
　　Innovation-oriented country
　　
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　　The conference unveiled a medium- and long-term scientific and technological development program for China from 2006 to 2020. The program, on which over 2,000 experts and scholars spent more than two years, rolled out the blueprint for an innovation-oriented China.
　　According to the program, China aims to become an innovation-oriented country by 2020, thus enabling scientific and technological progress to render stronger support to economic and social development.
　　In his speech, Hu envisioned a country in which science and technology play an enhanced role in promoting economic and social development and safeguarding national security, in which research in basic science and cutting-edge technology makes great strides, and in which world-class scientific and technological achievements are made.
　　Under the program, China will boost the development of information technology to power its industrialization, create internationally competitive new growth segments in areas that bear on the country’s sustainable development such as strategic energy and maritime technology and hi-tech sectors such as biology, material and nanoscience, and forge new innovation capacity in space, laser and other areas that have implications for the country’s industrial competitiveness and national security.
　　“We will focus on making breakthroughs in major projects in some selected hi-tech fields of strategic importance,” said Lu Yongxiang, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In his opinion, areas to be focused on include information technology, biology, key materials, space, nuclear, laser, nanoscience and strategic energy.
　　Despite its major inventions of the past, such as gunpowder, papermaking, printing and the compass, China is generally weak in innovations today. According to the World Competitiveness Report released by the Swiss International Institute of Management Development, in terms of scientific and technological innovation capacity, China ranked 24th among the 49 countries whose combined GDP accounts for 92 percent of the world’s total in 2004.
　　Sun Honglie, an academician at the CAS, said China’s average annual economic growth of up to 9 percent over the past 20 years had been fueled largely by labor-intensive industries. With a narrow profit margin, excessive resource consumption and heavy environmental pollution, these industries are highly unsustainable, he noted.
　　Statistics show that developed countries are responsible for 86 percent of the world’s research and development investment and over 90 percent of its patents. Commerce Minister Bo Xilai once mused that China has to sell 800 million shirts to purchase one Boeing plane.
　　Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua believes China’s weak innovation capacity will severely undermine its economic and social development and national security in the context of today’s increasingly fierce international competition.
　　At present, the United States, Japan and the European Union have all incorporated scientific innovation into their national strategies, while making ever-increasing input into science and technology. These innovation-oriented countries all devote huge resources to scientific research and development, and scientific and technological progress contributes to about 70 percent of their economic growth.
　　In 1960, 2.32 percent of China’s GDP went into science and technology, the highest rate since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In 2004, the rate was 1.23 percent, lower than the 1.5 percent required by law.
　　The scientific development program adopted at the National Conference on Science and Technology has made it clear that by 2020, scientific and technological progress should contribute about 60 percent to the country’s economic growth with 2.5 percent of its GDP devoted to scientific research and development.
　　Sun of the CAS said China’s economic growth had long been driven by the input of resources, capital and labor. However, as the economy expands, factors such as energy, resources and ecology will constrain its growth. Under the traditional growth pattern, economic development will prove to be unsustainable, given the resultant skyrocketing resource demand and environmental destruction. There has been mounting pressure on the country to transform its economic growth pattern by enhancing innovation capacity.
　　
　　New milestone
　　
　　The National Conference on Science and Technology this year was the fourth held on the topic since the founding of the nation, in addition to the Intellectuals’ Conference in 1956, the National Conference on Science in 1978 and the National Conference on Science and Technology in 1995. Each of them adopted significant programs and documents and heralded a scientific and technological boom.
　　The Intellectuals’ Conference in 1956, the first national conference on science and technology, issued the appeal of “marching toward science.” In the years after the conference, the number of China’s scientific research institutions grew from 381 in 1956 to 1,296 in 1962, covering most scientific and technological sectors. The number of researchers soared from some 60,000 to 200,000. Breakthroughs were made in oil field exploration and the research and production of the atom bomb.
　　The National Conference on Science held in March 1978 stated that science and technology are a productive force, and that talented personnel should be selected and trained. After this conference, many key scientific programs such as the Spark Program, China’s first program to stimulate the development of agriculture by relying on science and technology; the Torch Program, a national plan to develop new and high technology, and Program 863, a program dedicated to cutting-edge technology research, were launched successively.
　　Remarkable accomplishments were made in the development of the Long March rocket fleet, hybrid rice and high-performance computers. Many new and high technology industries in China were kicked into high gear, bringing the country’s science and technology to a new level.
　　The National Conference on Science and Technology held in May 1995 reaffirmed the notion that science and technology constitute the primary productive force, calling on the nation to pursue a strategy of revitalizing the country by relying on science and education. In the following years, a series of fresh achievements were registered in nanoscience and other areas.
　　China’s basic computer software industry was developed from scratch and has gradually broken the monopoly of multinational corporations. Headway was also made in the manned space program, the development of Chinese Central Processing Unit and genome studies. These breakthroughs not only helped China boost its development and further improve people’s living standards, but also enhanced its national strength and international competitiveness.
　　In this year’s National Conference on Science and Technology, Hu vowed that China would join the league of innovation-oriented countries by 2020, an attempt that is expected to facilitate the building of a well-off society in an all-round way.
　　To reach the goal set by Hu, Chinese scientists will have to strive for new progress in the coming years. Thus, this conference is also likely to prove a milestone in China’s science and technology development.
　　
　　Government incentives
　　
　　At the conference, Hu presented the 5 million yuan (about $600,000) State Supreme Science and Technology Award to atmospheric physicist Ye Duzheng and liver specialist Wu Mengchao. Since the award was initiated in 2000, nine scientists have claimed this honor. In the meantime, 314 scientific accomplishments received the State Natural Science Award, State Technological Invention Award or State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.
　　According to Chen Chuanhong, Director of the State Science and Technology Awards Office, preference was given to the innovative features of the accomplishments, in line with the Central Government’s requirements of prioritizing innovation in scientific and technological development.
　　A series of highly innovative, technologically demanding and internationally competitive accomplishments with self-owned intellectual property rights made in 2005 were granted state awards at the just concluded conference. The number of winners of the State Natural Science Award and State Technological Invention Award, two prizes meant to reward innovation, rose to 38 and 40, respectively, up nearly 40 percent from the previous year. In addition, projects that received the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award at the conference also involved innovation in key technology and system integration.
　　Most of the prizewinning projects aim at addressing the needs of the country, providing solutions to pressing problems that have significant implications for economic development and national security. For example, the development of bird flu vaccines was granted the Top State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, as were the studies on gas field exploration in Tarim Basin in northwest China’s Xinjiang. The former helped China to check the spread of the deadly bird flu epidemic, while the latter contributed to guaranteeing a stable gas transfer from China’s west to east. Several trailblazing medical research projects were also on the prize list.
　　Intellectual property rights have become an increasingly important measure to judge the applicants. All projects claiming the State Technological Invention Award and 27.8 percent of the projects winning the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award are patented. An engineering research project that received the Top State Technological Invention Award received 26 patents in China and four abroad.
　　About 52.3 percent of all prizewinning projects were solely or partly conducted by commercial enterprises, a fact that Chen, Director of the awards office, believes speaks of the business sector’s growing capacity for technological innovation. Tempted by the incentives offered by the government, commercial organizations are showing greater interest in coming up with novel technologies.
　　Another compelling fact is that more and more projects involving private enterprises claim state awards. Such projects made up 17 percent of all projects claiming the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award. Small- and medium-sized private technology companies are rising to become a crucial innovative force in China.
　　

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