EDUCATION | SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY | CULTURE | PUBLIC HEALTH | SPORTS

Summary

Steady development was seen in the scientific and technical contingent. At the end of 2000, the State-owned enterprises and institutions nationwide had 29.26 million professionals and technicians specialized in all disciplines, an increase of 0.75 percent over the end of 1999. A total of 2.81 million people were engaged in scientific and technological activities, including 1.56 million scientists and engineers.

New progress was achieved in technological innovation. In 2000, the State organized 280 key technological innovation projects and 1,329 projects for trial production of major new products. Research and development of 101 items of key technical equipment was completed and passed appraisal and proof-test. Cooperation between enterprises and universities and research institutions was further strengthened. In 2000, a total of 4.6 million people from 400,000 enterprises, universities and research institutions participated in 140,000 cooperative projects.

Fresh achievements were made in scientific research and technological development. The year 2000 witnessed 30,260 major scientific and technological achievements at and above ministry or provincial level. These included 2,420 achievements in the research of basic theories, 26,020 results in applied technologies and 820 results for soft science. About 300 achievements won State awards. A total of 170,690 domestic and foreign patent applications were received, of which 105,344 patents were authorized, an increase of 27.2 and 5.2 percent respectively. Technology market became more brisk. In 2000, a total of 265,000 technology contracts were signed, involving a transaction value of 63 billion yuan, up 20 percent over the previous year.

New headway was scored in space technology, with six successful launches of satellites in 2000.

Further improvement was made in technical services such as quality inspection, standardization, metrology and weather forecast. At the end of 2000, China had 5,500 product quality inspection institutions, including 230 national inspection centers. Authorized institutions conducted selective examinations of 9,705 kinds of products in 235 categories from 8,142 enterprises. There were 59 quality authentication institutions, including 23 product authentication institutions, which provided product authentication service to 13,194 enterprises nationwide. There were also 4,505 legal measurement inspection institutions and compulsory verification tests were made on 40.69 million sets of measuring instruments. A total of 1,087 national standards were formulated or amended, including 196 compulsory national standards and 605 new national standards. There were 951 urban and rural weather forecast transmission stations, 315 satellite cloud picture receiving stations, 1,234 seismic stations and 27 remote sensing stations and networks. The country's 927 ocean observation and monitoring stations obtained 20.7 million sets of oceanographic data. Surveying and mapping departments published 1,150 kinds of maps and 364 titles of books.