Beijing's second modernization level has surpassed that of Italy, Ireland, Spain and some other European countries and is approaching to the upper level of moderate developed countries. Beijing is already in the preparation period for knowledge economy from the industrialized economy, according to China Modernization Report 2002, co-sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and National Nature Science Foundation.
The second modernization theory was put forward by He Chuanqi, researcher of the CAS. He told reporters that from the world point of view, the first modernization features the industrialization, urbanization and democratization and it stresses material production. Developed countries have finished the first modernization process in the 1960s. The second modernization features with knowledge economy.
Evaluation indices of the first modernization include average GDP, population proportion in urban areas, survival rate of infants, predicted lifespan, a total of 10 indices. Beijing reached developed countries' 1960's level except for the GDP index, basically realizing the first modernization.
Evaluation indices of the second modernization cover four aspects as knowledge innovation, knowledge dissemination, life quality, and regional economy quality, a total of 16 indices. Taking average level 100 in the year 1999 of the developed countries as the criterion, Beijing's second modernization index is at 76, topping other cities in the country, higher than that of Italy, Ireland and Spain. The knowledge innovation index was 107, higher than that of developed countries' average level.
Statistics show that gaps between Beijing and developed countries lie mainly in popularization of higher education, material industry ratio and average GDP. For example, the popularization rate in Beijing's higher education is at 30 percent, but many developed countries have reached 80 percent. Beijing's material production in economic proportion is also higher than that of education, culture, scientific research.
Experts say that in the process of developing knowledge economy, the city should lay its emphasis on the improvement of higher education and Internet popularization. Education, scientific research, culture, medical and judicial services should be vigorously developed.
(People's Daily April 23, 2002)
