Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua said Friday that China needs to improve its innovation ability to address its economic and social problems.

"Other countries will not provide us with innovative technologies which are urgently needed for our sustained development," Xu said at a ministry work conference.

While continuing to borrow technology from developed countries, Xu said, Chinese scientists and technologists need to improve their own innovative ideas and make breakthroughs in their research.

In the past year, Xu said, Chinese researchers have achieved " great scientific research and industrialization of high technologies."

The country improved its management of funds allocation for natural scientific research. The ministry, mandated by the state, has also organized more basic research projects.

Chinese scientists have made great progress in inventing vaccines for severe acute respiratory syndrome and bird flu, manufacturing the high-performance super server, Dawn 4000A, exploring strategic mineral and marine resources.

In 2004, China was fifth in the world in research papers published by journals cited by the Science Citation Index. Patent applications reached 66,000, and 18,000 patents were granted.

China's research and development expenditures in 2004 reached 184.3 billion yuan (22.2 billion US dollars), 1.35 percent of its gross domestic product.

Source: Xinhua