The OECD has invited China to participate as an observer in its Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP), the Paris-based organization announced Friday.

CSTP addresses policy issues from the financing of research and innovation and the promotion of industry-science relations to the patenting of genetic inventions and international cooperation in large scientific ventures, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

"It is the first time China has requested and been granted observer status in any of the several dozen committees, composed of government representatives, that form the backbone of the OECD' s operations in support of intergovernmental cooperation," said the OECD in a statement.

The first meeting in which China will participate as an observer will take place in Paris on March 19-20.

Currently, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India, Singapore and Chinese Taipei are also observers in various OECD bodies.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2002)