Chinese President Hu Jintao Wednesday called on the country's millions of scientific workers to contribute more to the country's scientific and research undertakings and to strive for accelerated modernization.

Addressing 1,100 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, the president said China must firmly follow its strategy of revitalizing the country through science and technology, and promote economic development through scientific and technological progress and improved capability of its workers.

China should achieve all-round, coordinated and sustainable development through scientific and technological progress and innovation, he said.

On a number of major problems that call for urgent solutions in China, the president said the scientific and technological level of the country's agricultural sector and rural economy remains low, resulting in a lack of powerful technological support for improved comprehensive agricultural production capability.

The country's high-tech sector still accounts for an insignificant part of the country's economic growth as the country faces the heavy task of upgrading its traditional industrial sectors, said Hu.

He said China relies heavily on imported technology in some key fields of industrial technology and the country's products with high-tech content or with high added value rely on imports.

China's research sector and scientific and technological workers should play a "major role" in solving the scientific and technological issues that deserve immediate solution in the course of the country's social and economic development, said the president.

On the development of the country's scientific and technological undertakings, the president said China should deepen its reform of its scientific and technological system and promote rational distribution of its scientific and technological resources.

He called for breakthroughs in major scientific and research fields to promote development of the country's science and technology as a whole.

The president said China should give priority to selected areas that have great bearing on the country's economic and social development, national security, people's health and the country's whole ecological environment, and strive for technological breakthroughs in those areas.

China should increase its support on research projects involving information technology, biology, energy, nanometer technology and new material technology, and boost development of strategic technology, said the president.

Hu said the country will strive to give full play to the initiative of the country's scientific and technological workers, and continue its policy of respecting knowledge, talented people and innovation, and creating better working and living conditions for them.

On the country's tens of thousands of people studying abroad, the president said China will continue to encourage them to serve the country in many different ways.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2004)