Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Saturday that in the intense international competition, China is facing an arduous task of improving its economic structure, making rational use of resources, protecting the ecological environment, promoting rational development between different regions, improving the quality of its population and doing all it can to completely eliminate poverty.

"The key is to make endeavors to develop China's science and technology to provide momentum and guarantee for economic growth and social progress," the Chinese president said while meeting Saturday afternoon with six world well-known scientists in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, about 300 kilometers east of Beijing.

He said that China will implement the strategy of reinvigorating the nation through science and education and the strategy of sustainable development. China will also establish and improve national innovation systems, train talented people and actively employ overseas talent, improve the scientific and cultural level of the entire Chinese nation, encourage the Chinese people to be more aware of the role of science in society and do more to translate scientific and technological results into productive forces.

The six scientists are five Nobel Prize laureates: Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, Samuel C.C. Ting, laureates of the Nobel Prize for Physics, and Rudolph A. Marcus, awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1992 and Hartmut Michel, a German who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988, as well as Shing-Tung Yau who was awarded the Fields Prize in 1983. They are all foreign academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Jiang said that scientific ethics will be becoming more and more prominent in the 21st century. The key question is that scientific and technological progress should serve mankind, the lofty cause of world peace, development and progress, and should not harm mankind.

A major question which should be solved in the 21st century is to establish and improve scientific ethics, respect and protect intellectual property rights, and guide scientific and technological research and application to accord with the common interests of people all over the world, he added.

The six scientists are in China for a three-day academic exchanges with Chinese researchers at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Jiang said that he was very glad to meet them in Beidaihe, saying that they are world famous scientists and have achieved outstanding successes in their respective fields of research.

The Chinese leader expressed his heartfelt thanks to the six scientists who have done a great deal of work in helping China's scientific research, training China's scientific and technical talent, especially young scientific and technical talent, and promoting the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese scientists and their foreign counterparts.

He said he is ready to hear their views on the development of science and technology in today's world as well as their suggestions on the development of China's science and technology, especially high technology.

The six scientists briefed Jiang on a wide range of issues concerning the development of science and technology around the world, new developments in knowledge, the development of China's science and technology, and the training of young scientific personnel.

President Jiang pointed out that in the 20th century, science and technology witnessed enormous and rapid progress. Scientific concept made further progress and civilization made unprecedented achievements.

He noted that such achievements in science and technology, including the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, the genetic theory and the information theory, have not only added new knowledge and strong impetus to humans' efforts to gain correct perception of the nature and the development of productivity, but also greatly advanced society and had a profound influence on political, economic and cultural lives of the humans.

He said that at present, the development of science and technology has advanced to the scope of an elementary particle in the field of the physical sciences, to the level of molecules in the field of life sciences and to the stage of brain and cognitive science in the field of ideological sciences.

"This represents the splendid achievements that the mankind has made in the 20th century and indicates the development of science and technology in the 21st century," he said.

President Jiang said that science and technology have become the most innovative driving force of economic growth and social progress.

Speaking about the prospects of the development of science and technology in the 21st century, Jiang said that science and technology will make faster and more far-reaching progress and will definitely have more profound impact on the development of society and mankind.

"We should fully assess the great role that science and technology will play in the development of economy and society in the future," he said.

Noting that information and life sciences will be the most vigorous, fastest growing and most widely influencing fields in the 21st century, Jiang said that breakthroughs will continue to be made in biological technology, new materials, advanced manufacturing technology, clean and efficient fuels, aviation and space technology.

(China Daily)