"Sparks in West China", a program which aims to promote economic development in west China's rural areas by using science and technology, is going well.

As an important part of the original "Sparks Program", the " Sparks in West China" program, launched in 1997 by the Chinese government, has offered visible support to major scientific and technological programs in the region.

It has promoted technological cooperation and exchanges of capital, personnel and resources between eastern and western parts of China as well as the industrialization of technological achievements in rural areas of west China, making a significant contribution to rural economic development and the income of farmers in the region.

The above information was released at a symposium on "Sparks in West China" held in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Monday.

Reliable statistics show that the central government invested more than 28 million yuan (US$3.37 million) in state-level scientific and technological programs in west China during the 1996-2000 period. According to the statistics, 2,580 "Sparks Program" projects were carried in the western region in the year 2000 alone, 20.8 percent more than in 1999.

State-level "Sparks Program" projects carried out in the region in 2001 made up more than 50 percent of the country's total for the same year.

The "Sparks Program", launched in 1986, has been China's first program to promote science and technology in rural economic development.

Since then more than 100,000 scientific and technological programs, including over 10,000 state-level programs, have been implemented in over 85 percent of the country's counties in the past decade and more.

(People's Daily June 12, 2002)