With a contractual
value of 94.7 billion dollars, Sino-foreign contracts
involving technology services and consultancy rank second
on the technology import list, accounting for 23.5 percent.
The European Union was the largest source of technology
imports, accounting for 2,597 contracts, involving a contractual
value of 8.66 billion dollars, 39.3 percent of the total.
Contracts with Japan totaled 5.24 billion dollars, 23.8
percent of the total value, and the United States 4.23
billion dollars, 19.2 percent of the total.
State-owned enterprises saw a contract volume of 8.99
billion U.S. dollars, a mild decline from 2005, accounting
for 40.8 percent of the total.
Contracts mainly went to technology-intensive sectors
such as electronics, communications equipment manufacturing
and railway transportation.
At the mean time, Co-operations with overseas companies
in design and research seemingly dramatically increased.
backed by strong government funding, 16 key scientific
projects will be executed and 10 national laboratories
built by 2020, Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua
said yesterday.
China saw a record high R&D expenditure of 300 billion
yuan ($38.5 billion) 1.4 per cent of GDP in 2006, 22 percent
more than in 2005.
R&D funding will continue increasing this year and
beyond, Xu said, elaborating on the nation's science program
at a national conference in Beijing.
"It was the first time the proportion of R&D
spending in GDP reached such a high level," he noted.
Thanks to the huge input, 53,305 patents were registered
in China, Gao Changlin, director of the statistical analysis
centre of the National Research Centre for Science and
Technology Development, told China Daily.
Xu said the gap between China and developed countries
in science and technology is "narrowing rapidly"
and called the present "the best time in the history
for science" in China.
The 16 national-level projects will cover biology, energy,
the environment, health, IT, national defense and resources.
They will include the development of large aircraft,
software systems, crucial electronic components, high-end
computer chips, high-end machinery, new medicines, and
advanced integrated circuits.
Xu also said the country will promote manned spaceflight,
lunar exploration and a number of other science and technology
initiatives this year.
Blueprints of all the projects will be submitted to the
State Council for approval by the end of this year.
As one of the key steps, 10 national laboratories their
locations are yet to be announced will be built for agriculture,
aviation, clean energy, major diseases, nuclear fission,
oceanography, protein engineering, quantum manipulation
and transportation.
In 2000, China started building six national laboratories
to conduct research on high-energy physics, molecular
physics, nanotechnology, and radiation studies.
Xu said there is still a big imbalance in science development
between the eastern and western regions of the country.
Five cites, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin, Guangzhou,
Xi'an lead the country in science development.
|
