Almost 100 major scientific and technological breakthroughs have been achieved in China over the past five years, a top official announced in Beijing on Wednesday.

Ninety-seven key scientific and technological achievements in 11 fields have pushed forward industrial development and improved people's living standards, said Deng Nan, vice-minister of science and technology, on Wednesday.

Leading officials from 11 national industrial societies, including the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, the Chinese Medical Association and the China Water Conservancy Society, elaborated on the major technological breakthroughs achieved during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) period.

In mechanical and electrical fields, computer-aided design technology and computer-integrated manufacturing systems have been widely used, greatly improving the design and research ability of Chinese enterprises, said Zhu Disen, vice-chairman of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society.

In medicine, Chinese specialists have made many major breakthroughs including research into genetic diseases, neurosurgery and prevention of epidemic diseases, said Zong Sujie, vice-president of the Chinese Medical Association.

Chinese scientists have also participated in the global human genome project and completed the sequencing work of 1 percent of human DNA, Zong said.

Research into water conservation and supply in the northwestern region has helped the country use water resources more effectively, said Zhu Erming, chairman of the China Water Conservancy Society.

A batch of technological breakthroughs in water conservation have been achieved over the past five years, along with the launching of a series of key water control projects such as the Three Gorges Project and the Xiaolangdi Project, Zhu said.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology, more than 154,000 scientific and technological achievements have been registered nationwide in the past five years and more than 100,000 have received academic appraisal.

Among the appraised ones, more than 2,400 have won national awards.

More than 86 percent of the registered technological achievements could be applied in agriculture, industry and the service sector, according to the statistics.

(China Daily 05/18/2001)