The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is designing a new development strategy for resources and the environment to contribute to the country's development of science.

Fu Bojie, director of the Bureau of Sciences and Technology for Resources and the Environment (BSTRE), said that the CAS will proceed from the perspective of national strategic requirements and developments in the global sci-tech sector, and will promote CAS's international competitiveness and creativity.

Fu said the CAS is building the following research centers:

The Beijing geoscience base, the northwest resources and environmental research base, the northeast ecological management and modern agricultural research base, the Yangtze River reaches ecological environmental base, and the south marine scientific research base.

Fu said the Beijing geoscience base is expected to be an international leading research center in the geoscience field and the national resources and environment data center.

In addition, a CAS work report said the newly-established Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute would be built into an international research center.

The CAS is strengthening the construction of basic facilitates. The CAS now has 11 national laboratories and is expected to become a major force for the country's research in the field of resources and environment.

CAS Vice President Chen Yiyu says that the CAS will focus on important scientific objectives and resolve the major issues relating to resources and the environment.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2003)