Science 'critical' to economic upgrade

Premier Li Keqiang, accompanied by Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, tries an electronic pen developed by the academy before sitting down for talks with leading scientists on the country's development of science. [Photo/China Daily]

Technological innovation to play decisive role in development

Premier Li Keqiang highlighted the "critical role" of technological innovation in driving China's economic transformation during a scientific seminar on Monday.

Only by giving full play to scientific and technological progress can the nation's economy break through existing bottlenecks, he said.

"Chinese people cannot depend only on hard work," he told hundreds of top scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Great Hall of the People.

"We should also depend on intelligence, which comes from science and technology."

Monday's seminar was held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the academic division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The premier said it is normal for Chinese economic growth to slow down, especially considering its size.

"Given the fact that it would be a great job for an economy of several trillion dollars to continue expanding at an annual growth of 3 or 4 percent, China's 7 percent growth is already a miracle," he said.

China has lowered its annual economic growth target to about 7 percent this year, the lowest rate in a quarter of a century.

Li acknowledged that China is facing a number of challenges, ranging from higher labor costs to a strain on land and energy resources.

China is also feeling a double pinch from the re-industrialization of developed economies and the stepped-up industrialization of other developing economies, Li added.

He referred to the fact that in supermarkets in developed countries, low value-added and labor-intensive products made in China have been increasingly replaced by those from developing countries of Southeast Asia and South America.

"We used to rely on large amounts of exports and imports to promote made-in-China products in the global market and, for a long period of time, it was a main support for the Chinese economy," he said.

"Now technological innovation is playing the decisive role in economic development."

Li said it was unfortunate that China missed several chances to join the scientific and technological revolution. "It is time for us now to reshape our new competitive strength".

He called for greater efforts from the country's scientists and technicians to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies while speeding up the industrialization of scientific and technological production.

China is still suffering from poor research and development capability in the high-tech field, with its imports of chips topping $230 billion in 2013.

Zhao Xinli, deputy director of the Ministry of Science and Technology's China Science and Technology Exchange Center, said scientific advances can directly promote productivity, which will bring changes to the methods of production and add incentives to the economy.

The use of WeChat, a popular instant messaging system in China, has changed the market for traditional cellphone messages and generated growth in data service for telecom companies, he said.

He suggested government subsidies for scientific research be allocated according to the importance and urgency of the project, instead of being evenly used among different projects.