Scientists and entrepreneurs are of equal importance to China, a member of the Nobel Prize Committee has said in an interview.

Bertil Fredholm made the comments after Nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang said recently that the country needed money-making talent such as Nintendo and Bill Gates, and that one or two Nobel Prizes were of limited use.

Chen Ning Yang is a Chinese-born American. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with his colleague Tsung Dao Lee in 1957.

But Fredholm said: "China not only needs a 'Bill Gates' to create a fortune for the country, but also needs Nobel Prize-winning scientists to head the country's scientific development."

A delegation of the Nobel Committee ended a four-day visit to China yesterday

Another Nobel Committee member Sven Lidin said scientists and entrepreneurs were not mutually exclusive. "A country with many excellent entrepreneurs also has many top scientists, poets and musicians," he said.

Lidin cited the founder of the Nobel Prize as an example, saying Alfred Nobel himself was an entrepreneur, which did not prevent him from becoming a great scientist and making a contribution to the progress of human beings.

"More importantly, China should attach importance to the cultivation of young people's thirst for knowledge and encourage them to make breakthroughs in their predecessors' achievements," he said.

He stressed many countries are developing a research-oriented education system to foster young talents.

"A country should absorb overseas talent while encouraging native talents to study abroad in order to speed up communication and the passing on of knowledge."

Anders Flodstrom, president of the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, linked the comparison between scientists and entrepreneurs to a country's investment in basic science and applied science researches.

"Usually, research in applied science can be directly transferred to economic benefits. It is a headache for decision-makers to balance investment in the two research fields since investment is limited," he said.

According to China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), the country will invest 71.6 billion yuan (US$8.95 billion) to promote scientific innovation this year, up 19.2 per cent on that in 2005.

Flodstrom urged the Chinese government to encourage young people to engage in basic scientific research, which is the base for building an innovation-oriented country.

Flodstrom also said China needs to address the imbalance of different areas while maintaining the sustained increase in investment in science and technology, saying the western part of China has many resources and talents.

The committee members agreed that China has many excellent scientists, saying "future Nobel laureates are very possibly in today's Chinese universities."

The delegation was invited for the visit by the Ministry of Education. Besides attending meetings with Chinese officials, they also delivered speeches at Tsinghua and Peking universities.

Source: China Daily