Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday visited the Chinese Academy of Sciences, conveying greetings to science workers nationwide on the occasion of Spring Festival, which will fall on Jan. 22.

After visiting the Institute of Electronics and the Institute of Automation, both under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wen, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, stressed the importance of science and technology innovation to the scientists.

He said scientific innovation played a pivotal role in enhancing a country's economic competitive power. In the future, scientists should put more efforts into the research of those fundamental sciences and the high technologies with strategic meaning.

The academy should put the research related to information, energy sources, environmental protection, agriculture modernization and life sciences into a more important place and strive to make new breakthroughs in those fields.

Wen called the Chinese Academy of Sciences the most important organization in the country's scientific innovation system and hoped the academy would make new contributions to enhancing the country's comprehensive national strength.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2004)