Minister Xu Guanhua of Science and Technology said Friday that
China must maintain an annual growth rate of 7 percent for 40 years
in order to meet the target of building a moderately prosperous
society across the country by 2020.
The time span he mentioned is between the late of 1970s, when
China began its reform and opening up, and 2020, which is the last
year that China must fulfill its goal of building a well-off
society in an all-round way.
Addressing the news conference on building an innovation-
oriented country on the sidelines of the ongoing Fourth Session of
the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, Xu
said "if we can maintain an investment rate of 40 percent from now
on, the contribution rate of science and technology to GDP growth
is slated to hit 60 percent from the current 39 percent.
"Otherwise, it is not possible for us to meet the target of
quadrupling the current per capita GDP by the year 2020."
"Our per capita supply of energy, water and land resources is
becoming more stringent and the problems of resources and
environment are becoming increasingly pressing after all these
years of economic development," Xu said.
Only by promoting scientific and technological development can
China solve all these problems, he noted.
According to Xu, Chinese enterprises are under increasing
pressure from international competition as they become more deeply
involved in the globalization process of the world economy.
Xu also cited an example at the news conference to illustrate
the importance of building an innovation-oriented society.
He said Chinese enterprises have to pay high patent fees for
some key technologies. 20 percent of a mobile phone's price, 30
percent of a computer's price and 40 percent of the price of a
program-controlled digital machine tool have to be ceded to foreign
patents' owners.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)