Bioscientists attending the ongoing 10th International Symposium of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America said here Tuesday that biotechnology might have a bright future in the Chinese market in the upcoming 15 years.

Chen Zhu, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said at a press conference that by the year 2020, industrial development of biotechnology might help realize the bio-economy inChina.

Along with achievements made in life sciences, Chen, who is also a CAS academician, said that the Chinese have made great progress in biotechnology.

The production value of the biotechnology industry throughout the country was 200 million yuan (24 million US dollars) in 1986. In 2000, the figure reached 20 billion yuan. The output value of China's pharmaceutical industry was 200 billion yuan last year, with an annual growth rate of 20 percent in each of the previous five years.

Taking hybrid technology into account, the production of the industry was roughly valued at 700 billion yuan last year, Chen said.

With regard to health care industry, Chen said, the output of health care products accounted for one fifth or one sixth of the gross domestic product in the United States and many European countries.

However, he said, health care is more or less regarded as a social burden in China, whose products accounted for only 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Nancy Chang, president and chief executive officer of Tanox Biosystem, Inc., said that while Chinese become better-off and paymore attention to their own health, biotechnology would have great potential to tap.

Mark Tang, a venture capitalist of Wall Street, said that the Chinese market is lucrative enough and venture capitals for biotechnology might find more and more opportunities in the market.

The biggest issues faced by the Chinese entrepreneurs are where they could get enough funds and market-oriented technologies, he said.

Source: Xinhua