Chinese scientists were urged to work towards enhancing the country’s innovation capabilities by President Hu Jintao on Monday and to build China into an innovation-oriented country to "provide strong scientific and technological support" for future development.

 

Hu made his remarks at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Academy of Engineering (CAE) conference which opened in Beijing on Monday.?

 

Other important Party and State leaders including Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan also attended the opening ceremony of the science summit.

 

"Science and technology, especially strategic high technology, is increasingly becoming the decisive force in economic and social development,” Hu said at the conference.

 

He urged that action be taken quickly to catch up with developed countries in scientific and technological fields and to rely more on innovation in these areas to achieve rapid economic and social development.

 

Hu praised the CAS and CAE members, China's top scientists, for making excellent contributions to major state science projects including the manned space flight, the development of super hybrid rice and high-performance computer super servers.

 

At the four-day conference the CAS is to revise its constitution, elect new leaders for its academic divisions and the seventh group of its foreign associates.

 

The CAE are also electing a new leadership. Twenty senior engineers will be awarded the Sixth Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Prize at the conference. Academic workshops will also be convened.

 

Under the CAS and CAE constitutions the two bodies hold their conference every two years. The CAS has 704 members and foreign associates. ?

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2006)