China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched an ambitious science and technology advancement program, with an aim to promote 12 key technologies and their applications during the period from 2001-2005.
According to a MOST press conference held Friday in the port city of Xiamen, in east China's Fujian province, the ministry will invest over 5 billion yuan (600 million US dollars) in these projects, covering, among other sophisticated areas, super large-scale integrated circuit and software, information security, e-Government, e-finance, functional gene groups, biological chips, and electricity-powered motor vehicles.
A MOST official predicted that, fueled by the MOST investment, complementary investment from other sources on these projects would reach approximately 14 billion yuan (1.7 billion dollars).
The ministry expects that major technological breakthroughs will be made in several of these fields.
Speaking on the eve of a large-scale economic and trade fair here, a MOST official invited both domestic and foreign investors to actively put investment into scientific and technological projects in China as well as to conduct cooperative research in relevant fields.
(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2002)
