Biotechnology and related industries are rapidly developing in
China, experts in the China National Center of Biotechnological
Development said in Beijing Friday.
Wang Hongguang, director of the center, said the Chinese government
has devoted great efforts to the research and development of
biotechnology and its industrialization.
According to him, China had invested some 10 billion yuan in this
field in the past two years.
Information shows that China, as the sole developing country
participating in the international human genome project, has
finished one percent of the sequence test and independently
completed the sequence draft for the gene groups of a hybrid rice.
It is also the first country to locate and clone the gene causing
high-frequency nerve deafness and some genes causing hereditary
diseases.
Additionally, China's two-line hybrid rice technology has matured
and been popular in many areas. Research in the field of anti-pest
cotton has reached the internationally advanced level and China has
become the second country to have the autonomous intellectual
property rights and independently cultivate these plants.
Chinese scientists have also succeeded in cloning a goat and cow.
In addition, there are already 150 types of biological
pharmaceuticals in the process of clinical research.
According to incomplete statistics, China, one of the countries
with the richest and most diverse biological resources in the
world, has about 260,000 varieties of animals, plants and
microbes.
Wang said China has nearly 200 major biotechnology laboratories
funded by governments at various levels, with more than 40,000
technological and research personnel.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2002)