China's Minister of Education Zhou Ji, and Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong, held a press briefing on the nation's developments in education, science and technology; and answered journalists' questions Tuesday afternoon at the Media Center.
Accelerate building of a country rich with human resources
In the report delivered at the Party's 17th National Congress, General Secretary Hu Jintao proposed to “give priority to educational development and building a strong nation rich with human resources.” Education Minister Zhou Ji claimed this to be a tremendous encouragement as well as a strong push for education.
For the past five years, China's education system has been moving along a smooth course. Enrollment in all levels of schooling has improved, and people have had more access to education and higher levels of education. The education system has sent hundreds of millions of workers and professionals to all sectors of society.
Currently, Chinese people receive an average of 8.5 years of education, and the newly-added labor force receives more than 10 years. More than 70 million people have received a college education or higher. Zhou stated that China is accelerating its transformation from a heavily populated country to a large country rich in human resources.
The 17th National Congress report set higher standards for building a large country with human resources, and efforts will be directed on three major aspects: improve the current national education system and form a lifetime education system; fully implement the Party's educational guidelines, push forward quality-oriented education and improve all levels of education; enhance education for all people and cultivate more innovative minds so as to establish a strong personnel and knowledge base in support of the socialist drive.
Sci-tech enters a stage of leaps
In the past five years China has made a string of scientific and technological achievements including manned space flight, super-hybrid rice and high-performance computers. Breakthroughs were made in basic and primary studies; and independent, national innovation capabilities were further enhanced.
Presently, China has 35 million science and technology personnel. In 2006, 300 billion yuan was spent on scientific research, accounting for 1.42 % of the GDP.
Independent innovation does not exclude technology imports and international cooperation
Independent innovation means enhancing our ability to obtain key technologies and independent intellectual property rights (IPRs); while opening up to the outside world. Li Xueyong said this is of great importance to our industrial competitiveness and economic structure.
Li added that China has cooperated with many countries and regions, for the sake of mutual benefit, equality, and respect for international rules and IPRs. We stand for cooperation with both developed and developing countries; and through both governmental and non-governmental channels. So far, China has established cooperative relations in science and technology with 152 countries and regions; and joined 350 international sci-tech organizations.
By People's Daily Online |
