BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhuanet) - The State Council issued here Thursday the guidelines on national medium- and long-term program for science and technology development (2006-2020), which sets the proportion of research and development expenditure in the gross domestic product at 2.5 percent.

    By 2020, the progress of science and technology will contribute 60 percent and above to the country's development. Meanwhile, the country's reliance on foreign technology will decline to 30 percent and below. The number of patents granted to Chinese nationals and the introduction of their academic essays are expected to rank among the first five throughout the world.

    Quickening up research on 16 key technologies

    China announced that it plans to speed up the pace of research on 16 special, key technologies, so as to deal with a number of problems of importance and urgency for the country's strategic fields like information, biology, resources and health as well as some technologies that could be applicable for both military and civilian use.

    These technologies are among the most important of all for developing science and technology development and realizing national targets, and they must be accomplished within a certain period of time by making breakthroughs in core technology and integrating resources.

    The 16 technologies are core electric parts, high-end general chips and basic software, technology and whole-set process for manufacturing supercargo integrated circuits, new-generation broad-band and wireless mobile telecommunications, high-level digital-condoled lathe and basic manufacturing technology, exploration of large oil and gas fields and coalmine-gas, large, advanced nuclear power plants of hydro-pressure reactor and high-temperature air-cooling reactor, control and treatment of water pollution, breeding of new genetically modified biological species, research and development of major new pharmacy, prevention and control of serious diseases like AIDS and viral hepatitis, large airplane, high-definition ground-monitoring system, and manned space and Moon-probing programs.

    Strengthening basic research

    China will strengthen basic research to meet major strategic demands and help achieve national goals in upcoming 15 years.

    Basic research has become part of the international competition of overall national strength. As a rapidly developing country, China must put the emphasis on basic research in order to achieve national goals and solve key problems which would appear in the future.

    Under the principle of selecting state-listed basic researches set by the guideline, the state will pick up research programs which are influential to the economic and social development and national security, temporally weak but key to development, or capable of leading future high-tech development.

    The guideline lists 10 basic researches in line with the requirement, such as basic biological researches comprising life science and diseases, research on the impact of human activities on global system, global change and regional response, and research on formation, forecast and control of disasters.

    The guideline also sets forth frontier issues in basic research and a plan of four major scientific researches for the next 15 years.

    More support for enterprise innovation

    China will urge large enterprises to set up research and development (R&D) institutes and welcome enterprises to share the state's R&D tasks in the next 15 years, according to the national guideline.

    Chinese enterprises are playing a more important role in the reform and opening-up progress. The country will encourage enterprises to become the main body of R&D through economic and scientific policies.

    According to the guideline, China will push enterprises to spend more on research and development, and establish state-level engineering labs and various industrial engineering centers with joint R&D groups from enterprises, universities and scientific institutes.

    Meanwhile, the country will support enterprises to take part in national R&D tasks. The national science development program will also incorporate more scientific and technological demands of enterprises.

    Innovation capability should be a key indicator of qualification evaluation of state-owned enterprises, says the guideline, and regulations and policies should be made to encourage innovation of small and medium sized enterprises which are vigorous but fragile to risks.

    The guideline also lists a few preferential tax policies and vows to encourage enterprises to set up special funds for research and development. Enditem