Xi urges enhancing scientific literacy

"During our dialogues with international colleagues, we felt it crucial to consolidate consensus and deepen our cooperation in global strategic topics such as sustainable development," Wan said.

More than 1,000 scientists and representatives from 38 countries and regions, as well as 23 international scientific organizations and 58 national scientific institutes, are attending the conference, he said.

"We hope the conference voices our common aspiration for improving public scientific literacy and creating global joint initiatives, and that it becomes a milestone in the history of global scientific literacy," Wan said.

Huai Jinpeng, executive vice-president of CAST, said other countries can learn from China's experience in promoting scientific literacy, especially in rural and underdeveloped regions.

China has created a vast fleet of science popularization caravans that travel to remote places and teach locals essential scientific knowledge that can benefit their lives, Huai said.

The caravans have traveled more than 34 million kilometers and served around 200 million people, Huai said. There also are 164 "science popularization cavalry" teams that travel on horseback to deliver essential scientific advice to people living in extremely remote ethnic minority regions.

International cooperation is key in promoting scientific literacy, Huai said. This year, the China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest invited more than 300 participants from more than 50 countries and regions, he said.

"These events can strengthen China's cooperation with neighboring countries and international organizations through exchange and sharing of scientific resources," he said.

However, China still has a huge gap with developed countries in terms of the percentage of population that is scientifically literate, Huai said. China also lacks high-quality popular science resources, and faces unbalanced development in urban and rural areas, he added.
"We also hope to learn from other countries, and improve our working mechanisms for improving scientific literacy," he said.