China has a human resources reservoir of 42 million in science and technology, said a report issued on Tuesday.

The report, compiled by the China Association for Science and Technology, said 65.7 percent of the sci-tech human resources were below 40 years old, and the ratio of male to female was 2:1.

The sci-tech human resources formed an important foundation for a nation's renovation capacity, and after half a century's efforts, China now stood at the forefront of the world in terms of the quantity of sci-tech human resources, the report said.

In 2005, China's sci-tech human resources stood at 35 million, according to then Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua.

According to the report, most of such resources were now in the secondary and tertiary industries, and in terms of sector, education had the most of such resources, followed by manufacturing, building, public administration and social organization.

However, there were only about 700,000 people, or 1.6 percent of the total, were in the agricultural sector, it added.

In terms of region, the advanced eastern part of China had the most sci-tech human resources, about 48.8 percent of the total, with central China 28.3 percent and the vast western region 21.6 percent.

The report said that compared with developed countries, China still lagged far behind when it came to the ratio of sci-tech human resources in the whole population.

It proposed that China put more emphasis on improving the quality of these resources, properly deploy them, nurture more of such resources and guide the rational flow of them.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2008)