More efforts to boost innovation in 2014

More efforts will be made in 2014 to support the innovation and research and development of new technologies, said Wan Gang, minister of the Science and Technology Ministry at the 2014 national conference on science and technology in Beijing on Thursday.

The conference, held by the ministry annually, was to summarize the previous year's achievements and experiences in the development of science and technology, and set goals for next year's work.

Wan said in 2014 more attention should be paid to making breakthroughs in strategic high technologies, a series of leading technologies that are the focus of researchers worldwide, such as the 5G network, supercomputer, Beidou Navigation Satellite system and 3D printing.

He said he hopes that the core technology in 20 emerging industries, including big data, intelligent robots, clean gas and biological medicine, can be mastered by Chinese researchers, and innovative projects in these fields can be put into practice and play a leading role in the world.

He also said that China's science and technology developed in leaps and bounds in 2013, with scientific breakthroughs involving the Tianhe-2 supercomputer, Chang'e-3 lunar probe and the Jiaolong deep-sea manned submersible.

According to Wan, China's expenditures on scientific research and development in 2013 may reach 1,180 billion yuan ($195 billion) and was estimated to account for 2 percent of the GDP in 2013.

The number of research staff was expected to exceed 3.6 million, creating more than 590,000 patents for invention — a 24-percent increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of international scientific theses published by Chinese researchers in 2013 ranked the second in the world, while the ranking for citations rose to fifth.

More than 200 representatives from the ministry, provincial science and technology departments, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Association of Science and Technology attended the conference.