V-4 Question: In early 2006, China set a goal to build itself into an innovative country. How far is China from an innovative country? What is China's potential in becoming an innovative country? What are China's strategies?

A: China is not competitive in many core industries. For instance, in China's market, only 10 percent of the cars are made by domestic firms, 97 percent of pharmaceutical products were not invented in China, and a large amount of medical devices are imported. China's innovativeness still lags far behind that of developed countries.

According to a study by the Ministry of Science and Technology on China's industries, including information technology, biology, new materials, energy, resources and environmental protection, as well as manufacturing industries, China's overall research and development (R&D) level is five years behind that of developed countries, and in most of engineering fields, China is over 10 years behind that of developed countries. China is weak in R&D, does not own many patents, and is highly dependent on imported technology. In terms of innovativeness, China ranks 28th among 49 major countries.

International experience shows that a country's economic and social structure is the most dynamic at a per-capita GDP level of $1,000-3,000. At this stage, economic returns from traditional factor inputs begin to decrease, and science and technology becomes more important. Currently, China's per-capital GDP has reached this level, whereas its innovative index has reached the level of a country with per-capita GDP of $3,000-5,000. In the past half a century, especially in the past two decades, China has laid a comprehensive framework for science and technology development, and has made significant breakthroughs in science and technology.

In its history, China has contributed to the development of world science and technology with such brilliant inventions as the compass, papermaking, printing, and gunpowder. To achieve its goal of building an innovative country, China plans that by 2020, its R&D expenditure will be increased to 2.5 percent of GDP. Scientific and technological progress will contribute to 60 percent of productivity growth. The percentage of imported technology should account for no more than 30 percent of the total, and the number of patents granted to Chinese citizens and the number of citations for publications by Chinese citizens in international science journals will be among the top five in the world. This plan will pave the road for China to become a scientific and technological power by the middle of this century.

While China values domestic innovation, this does not mean China will close its door to advanced foreign technologies. China will introduce and adopt foreign technologies as well as develop its own. Developing its economy, maintaining social harmony and building an innovative country is the historical mission of the Chinese people.

(China.org.cn)