The first agricultural high-tech park in east China's Zhejiang Province, covering an area of over 330 hectares, went into operation Sunday.

With a total investment of more than 500 million yuan (US$60.24 million), the agricultural park was jointly built by the Zhejiang Chuanhua Group, a private enterprise, and Zhejiang provincial government.

An official with the Ministry of Science and Technology said that the park, which boasts many advanced technological facilities and scientific research means, indicated the future development of China’s agriculture.

A group of well-equipped scientific research facilities have been built inside the park, including modernized greenhouses and shelters, a plant cloning center and a pond for disposing of irrational water, according to Xu Guanju, president of the Chuanhua Group.

Among these facilities, the plant cloning center, the largest of its kind in east China, can provide 30 million cloned seedlings annually.

To date, the park has developed, introduced and promoted the planting of more than 100 plant varieties, including flowers, strawberries, sweet potatoes, butterfly orchids, flycatchers and nepenthes.

Park sources said that tens of thousands of farmers have joined in the park.

More than 20 Chinese universities and research institutes including Zhejiang University, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences and experts from the agricultural scientific and technological fields of the United States, France and the Netherlands also contributed to the planning and construction of the park.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2002)