BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Premier Wen Jiabao Friday pledged to continue implementing the strategy of invigorating China through science and education and stay on the road of sustainable development.

    "In the course of development, we will steadfastly give priority to education and devote more energy and financial resources to accelerating its development," Wen said in a report on government work at the opening of the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress.

    According to the premier, China will adopt a fresh round of measures to implement the Action Plan for Reinvigorating Education,with the focus on compulsory education, particularly in rural areas.

    This year China will begin to implement the plan to make nine-year compulsory education basically available throughout the western region and basically eliminate illiteracy among the adultsthere by 2007. The central government will spend 10 billion yuan on this work.

    Meanwhile, the central government will contribute 6 billion yuan to carrying out the second phase of the plan for renovating dangerous primary and secondary school buildings in rural areas. Both central and local governments will increase their investment to develop modern distance education in rural primary and secondary schools.

    The government will work to optimize the education structure, take energetic and steady steps to develop higher education, and put more effort into developing vocational education and continuing education.

    This year, the government will continue to concentrate on formulating a medium- and long-range state plan for developing science and technology in order to define the strategy, objectives,tasks and policies in this field for the coming 15 years. Enditem