Terms like "food safety," "dairy development" and "in-depth processing of major agricultural products" don't usually occupy the same sentence as science and technology, but they are on the list of the 12 key science and technology research and development projects announced Tuesday by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Also, for the first time, the government is inviting enterprises to participate in the projects in an effort to accelerate the industrialization of the results of the research.

Analysts said the development of Chinese science and technology not only aimed for "the sci-tech summit," but also took people and enterprises as its primary consideration.

The problem of food safety, especially with China's entry to the World Trade Organization, has become a major obstacle to the competitiveness of Chinese agriculture and farm produce. The "food safety" project aims to solve existing problems in food sanitation and the safety of food products, including crucial detection, techniques and criteria for control and inspection, and the establishment of a support system in science and technology.

The "dairy development" project may change the milk-free diet of the Chinese people. Currently, per capita milk production in China is only 7 kg (15 lb) a year, far less than the world average of 100 kg (220 lb). The project may also change the planting structure in rural and suburban areas, so as to improve the efficiency of agriculture and increase farmers' incomes.

"Water-saving agriculture" and "in-depth processing of major agriculture products" are of great significance to China's 900 million drought-obsessed farmers.

Meanwhile, the "electric vehicle" and "innovative medicine and herbal medicine modernization" will exert profound influences on relevant industries and everyday life.

In the past, national research projects were basically undertaken by government institutes and universities, but the application units of the 12 projects are mainly large corporations.

Cooperating with research institutes and universities, large corporations have bid for 14 areas of the "in-depth processing of major agriculture products" project. The research into the "electric vehicle" project has been undertaken by limited companies that collectively share the intellectual property rights.

Officials with the Ministry of Science and Technology said that private businesses lead the research of more than half the topics. The ultimate purpose of applying the innovative model of enterprise investment was to solve the problem of industrialization of scientific achievements.

Analysts said the projects not only indicated the promising future of Chinese science and technology, but also revealed significant reform in the developmental system of Chinese science and technology.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2002)