China announced in Beijing Sunday that it would provide 50 fellowships in scientific research every year to scientists from other developing countries.

Guo Huadong, vice secretary general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said many developing countries were showing greater interest in scientific cooperation and Chinese scientists were willing to exchange with their counterparts in developing countries.

The 14th general meeting of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), from Oct. 16 to 19, has released a declaration calling for further international scientific openness and cooperation.

The declaration encourages developing countries with certain scientific expertise to provide opportunities for research to scientists from scientifically less-developed nations.

In response to the proposal, China had decided to help other developing countries, said Guo, who was a co-coordinator for the TWAS meeting.

Guo, a technologist specializing in remote sensing imaging, trained a fellow from Cameroon.

He described the TWAS as a platform not only for developing countries, but also for cooperation between the developing and developed worlds.

"Technologies on environmental protection and control of epidemics definitely need cooperation between scientists from developed and developing countries," he said.

China would show more openness to the outside world, he said. "Only by knowing world scientific trends, can decision-makers plan scientific research wisely," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2003)