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A
fresh vegetable production line ensuring public
safety has been established in Shenzhen.
In this picture a worker is transferring young
vegetables to a large pool for further growing.
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High
and New Technology
Since March 1986, China has been
taking steps to implement the State High-Tech Research and Development
Plan, sometimes referred to as the “863 Plan,” the first intermediate-
and long-term plan combining military and civilian production in
China. The major task of this plan is to develop, on a large scale,
biology, space, information, laser, automation, energy, new materials
and oceanology technology in an organized and planned way. Since
the implementation of this plan, China has gradually perfected a
high-tech research and development strategy in conformity with the
Chinese situation.
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The “Spark Program” Formally implemented
in 1986, the major task of the “Spark Program” is to rejuvenate
the rural economy by relying on science and technology, popularize
advanced and applicable scientific and technological findings in
the rural areas and lead the township enterprises to develop in
a healthy way. This plan places great stress on the industries closely
related to people’s livelihood. The resources advantages of the
rural areas are turned into economic advantages by utilizing science
and technology. The demonstration projects promote the development
of crop cultivation, animal husbandry, aquaculture and the processing
of agricultural and sideline products. A large number of vegetable,
fruit, poultry and eggs, and aquatic product bases have been established,
and advanced breeding and cultivation techniques have been popularized.
This plan has not only aroused the peasants’ enthusiasm for production,
but also enriched the urban dwellers’ “vegetable baskets” and “rice
bags.” The “Spark Program” has also made efforts to relieve poverty
in rural areas. It has organized demonstrations of scientific and
technical projects in ten typical mountain areas, and comprehensively
developed and utilized resources to tackle the problems of food
and clothing of the local people.
The “Torch Program” In 1988, China
launched the “Torch Program,” which is intended to put results of
research in new and advanced technology into use in production.
Since the implementation of the program, nearly 100 service centers
to help people start businesses have been set up in 53 state-level
new and advanced technology development zones. In 1997, the State
Science Commission approved the establishment of the first group
of such state-level centers. These so-called “incubator” institutes
have played an important role in accelerating the transfer of results
of research in new and advanced technology into production, and
fostering new and advanced technology enterprises and entrepreneurs.
High and New Technology Development
Zones In 1998, there were 16,097 enterprises in the high and new
technology development zones, employing 1.74 million persons. These
enterprises had earned a total of nearly 484 billion yuan from the
fields of technology, industry and trade, and chalked up a total
output value of 433.4 billion yuan, and 8.5 billion US dollars in
export earnings. The Beijing, Suzhou, Hefei and Xi’an high and new
technology development zones have been nominated as special zones
open to the member countries of APEC.
The “Scaling Heights
Program” Formally implemented in 1992, this is a program aimed at
promoting the state’s key basic research projects, by strengthening
the state’s support for basic research and giving an impetus to its
sustained and steady development. For several years running, the “Scaling
Heights Program” has made some prominent achievements. Among them,
the research work of the “Theory and Practice of Large-Scale Science
and Engineering Calculation” project in symplectic geometry has been
highly praised by famous scholars and experts worldwide. It sparked
a series of related research projects around the world and has been
successfully applied to research in celestial mechanics, molecular
dynamics and aerophysics. As a result, it won a top state prize for
natural sciences in 1997. The “Machine Authentication and Application”
project is considered a milestone in the field of automatic inference
by experts. |
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