China's largest city is hedging its bets on science and education, dedicating large amounts of funds to these two priority areas, in hopes of reaping future benefit.

Shanghai plans to build four university districts and found a group of departments and colleges that will feed talent into the city's key industries.

According to Wang Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Education Commission, 53 per cent of university-age students in Shanghai are currently enrolled into higher education.

The city is also looking abroad for talent, seeking to lure back thousands of overseas students and import specialists and experts from Hong Kong.

In preparation for the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010, the government will also send people overseas to receive training.

In the next three years, Shanghai will allocate 2 billion yuan (US$240 million) each year to support scientific and technology projects that are expected to contribute to the city's economic development.

Research and development funding will account for 2.5 per cent of Shanghai's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2007.

According to a statement released at a municipal press conference on the Internet on Wednesday, the funds will go to "first-class projects led by first-class teams." Moreover, these projects should be able to produce technology and results with proprietary intellectual property rights that will benefit area industries.

So far, the city government has plans for 64 such projects and has started 29 of them.

Nearly half of the projects are in information technology and biotechnology areas. Others are engaged in manufacturing, government management and public service platform.

"I believe these projects will contribute a lot to increasing Shanghai's GDP per capita from US$5,000 to US$8,000 in the next five years," said Yu Guosheng, an official leading the city's science and education co-ordination office.

State-level laboratories will also receive government's financial support.

To support the scientific research and innovation among institutions and enterprises, Shanghai has set up China's first public research and development platform open to all.

The city plans to bolster an existing intellectual property database and human resource pool.

(China Daily August 20, 2004)