Chinese Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua said in Beijing Sunday that China has achieved great progress in scientific and technological development, which is well illustrated by the successful Shenzhou-V manned space mission.

At a national work conference on science and technology, Xu said that China was ranked the fifth in quantity of academic theses according to the scientific citation index (SCI). The total R&D funds reached 150 billion yuan (US$18 billion) in 2003, accounting for 1.32 percent of the gross domestic product.

Statistics showed that domestic patent applications, for the first time since eight years ago, were more than those from overseas. Contractual trade volume in nationwide technological markets reached 108.467 billion yuan (US$13.104 billion), with an annual growth rate of 22.68 percent.

Chinese high technology enterprises produced goods valued at 2.75 trillion yuan, increasing by 30.8 percent annually. High technology exports reached US$100.16 billion, one-fourth of the state's total exports in 2003, according to the statistics.

Xu said, "A great number of private-funded high technology enterprises are becoming the most energetic players in the area."

In response to central authorities' request for a long-term national scientific and technological development plan, Xu said, the ministry gathered more than 2,000 scientists and experts to design the plan. Meanwhile, the ministry publicized the ongoing process for public debate.

After the breakout of severe acute respiratory syndrome in spring 2003, Xu said, the ministry organized more than 3,000 medical scientists for lab research in order to effectively control the epidemic.

On international cooperation on science and technology, Xu said that Chinese scientists have never been irrelevant to multinational research programs.

After signing agreement with the European Union, Xu said, China is going to fully join the Galileo project, an EU initiation equivalent to the US military-sponsored global positioning system.

In addition, Chinese scientists for the first time led an international research program on human liver protein, Xu said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)