In March 1996, the two strategies were officially written into the blueprint for the country's economic and social development.

After more than 10 years of hard work, a mechanism that is conducive to innovation and the industrialization of science and technology has taken shape in China, said Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua, a delegate to the congress, as reported by the People's Daily yesterday.

Xu said China's strength in science and technology puts it in a leading position among developing countries, and that it has approached or even reached international advanced levels in some key and crucial fields.

The sustainable development of science and technology lies in well-educated citizens, the People's Daily report quoted another delegate, Minister of Education Chen Zhili, as saying.

Great efforts have been made to promote education among all citizens in China, Chen said.

According to Chen, China reached its goal in 2000 of offering nine-year compulsory education to almost all children and eliminating illiteracy among almost all people between the ages of 15 and 50.

The number of ethnic minority students in the country has reached more than 19.4 million, a 40 percent increase over 1988.

Xie Zhenhua, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said achieving sustainable development is the inevitable choice for China.

Xie said sustainable development had been a term unfamiliar to Chinese people for a fairly long period. In the past, people, with the simple aim of getting food, destroyed the ecological balance with activities such as converting too much land for crops and by filling lakes.

Environmental pollution accelerated and the ecology worsened in the early 1990s, putting the breaks on economic development and menacing the health of the general public.

In March 1994, China enacted its 21st century agenda and issued a series of documents on environmental protection.

The idea of sustainable development was then introduced into the overall blueprint and long-term plan for the country's economic and social development.

In recent years, China has made unremitting efforts to control population growth, improve the ecological status and curb environmental pollution, the report said.

(China Daily November 12, 2002)