According to Beijing's media, Cheng Siwei, deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, revealed on May 24 that at present, China's dependency on foreign technology has exceeded 50%. Namely, half of China's technology has to be imported.

At the International Forum on the Development of China's High-tech Enterprises of the 9th China Beijing International High-tech Expo, Cheng indicated that at present science and technology only contribute 30% of China's economic development. More than half of China's technology has to rely on imports and only 0.03% of domestic enterprises own independent intellectual property rights.

He believes that if China wants to build an innovative country, it must make domestic enterprises become the main body of innovation.

It was learned that due to lack of core technology, domestic enterprises have no choice but to pay foreign patent holders 20% of the price for each China-made cell phone, 30% of each computer's cost and 20% to 40% of the price of each computerized numerical control machine.

Based on incomplete statistics, China puts out approximately 30,000 items of science and technology findings each year. However, less than 20% of these findings can become products and probably less than 5% can really be transformed into an industry. Finally, Cheng remarked that building an innovative country is neither a catch phrase nor a speedy activity. It takes long-term, down-to-earth and painstaking effort to accomplish this objective.

(Chinanews May 26, 2006)