Terms like "food safety," "dairy development" and "in-depth
processing of major agricultural products" don't usually occupy the
same sentence as science and technology, but they are on the list
of the 12 key science and technology research and development
projects announced Tuesday by the
Ministry of Science
and Technology.
Also, for the first time, the government is inviting enterprises to
participate in the projects in an effort to accelerate the
industrialization of the results of the research.
Analysts said the development of Chinese science and technology not
only aimed for "the sci-tech summit," but also took people and
enterprises as its primary consideration.
The problem of food safety, especially with China's entry to the
World Trade Organization, has become a major obstacle to the
competitiveness of Chinese agriculture and farm produce. The "food
safety" project aims to solve existing problems in food sanitation
and the safety of food products, including crucial detection,
techniques and criteria for control and inspection, and the
establishment of a support system in science and technology.
The "dairy development" project may change the milk-free diet of
the Chinese people. Currently, per capita milk production in China
is only 7 kg (15 lb) a year, far less than the world average of 100
kg (220 lb). The project may also change the planting structure in
rural and suburban areas, so as to improve the efficiency of
agriculture and increase farmers' incomes.
"Water-saving agriculture" and "in-depth processing of major
agriculture products" are of great significance to China's 900
million drought-obsessed farmers.
Meanwhile, the "electric vehicle" and "innovative medicine and
herbal medicine modernization" will exert profound influences on
relevant industries and everyday life.
In
the past, national research projects were basically undertaken by
government institutes and universities, but the application units
of the 12 projects are mainly large corporations.
Cooperating with research institutes and universities, large
corporations have bid for 14 areas of the "in-depth processing of
major agriculture products" project. The research into the
"electric vehicle" project has been undertaken by limited companies
that collectively share the intellectual property rights.
Officials with the Ministry of Science and Technology said that
private businesses lead the research of more than half the topics.
The ultimate purpose of applying the innovative model of enterprise
investment was to solve the problem of industrialization of
scientific achievements.
Analysts said the projects not only indicated the promising future
of Chinese science and technology, but also revealed significant
reform in the developmental system of Chinese science and
technology.
(Xinhua News
Agency August 2, 2002)