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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION |
China S&T Planning Forum
The International Forum on China's S&T towards 2020, a meeting soliciting the views and comments on China's national long and medium term S&T planning was held on November 13, 2003 in Beijing. Ms. CHEN Zhili, Chinese State Councilor and XU Guanhua, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology delivered their respective keynote speech at the Forum.
Mr. XU said that the national long and medium S&T plan to be prepared will become China's first governmental document in the new century to guide the nation's long and medium term S&T development, and is the first national long and medium term S&T plan after the establishment of China's socialist market economy and China's entry into the WTO. Being the first S&T plan to be prepared and implemented under the new Administration, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology will make it a new century plan showing a more open gesture and far reaching vision, reflecting the wisdom of Chinese experts and scholars while learning from the proven foreign experiences.
Spoken also at the Forum were Prof. Bernard Bigot, High Commissioner of the Atomic Energy-France who introduced the French policy and strategies on energy development, Prof. Yang Zhenning, a Noble Prize Winner for physics with a speech on the future of basic research activities and the associated economic and social impacts, and Dr. Carlo Rubbia, Noble Prize Laureate and President of ENEA(Italian Institute for Environmentally-safe Energy), sharing the Italian S&T policies and new tech development strategies in the field of energy and environment.
Former senior governmental officials from other countries also shared with the audiences the S&T development strategies and policies in their respective countries. The talking former senior governmental officials are the former Canadian Minister of S&T Affairs, Dr. Etienne Baulieu, President of the French Academy of Sciences, Mr. Arima Akito, former Minister of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, Mr. Oh-Kab Kwon, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea, Dr.-Ing.E.h.Uwe Thomas, former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany, Dr. J. Thomas Ratchford, former Associate Director for Policy and International Affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP), Mr. Polikarpov Vladimir Ivanovich, Head of Science and Technology Policy Department, Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation.
China-UK High Tech Forum
The 2nd China-UK High Tech Forum opened on November 11, 2003 in London. Under the co-sponsorship of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the Forum has attracted the participation of one hundred and more representatives from the governmental agencies, S&T communities and industries of both nations. Mr. LIU Yanhua, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology and Lord Sainsbury, UK Minister for Science and Innovation made their respective opening remarks at the Forum.
The participants shared at the Forum their views and comments on varieties of topics such as information and communication, life science, new materials, energy and environment, venture capital and others. To make the British public aware of the latest S&T developments in China, the Forum also arranged a China High Tech Show on the occasion. The Show displayed the major achievements made in the fields of basic research, life science, information, automation, energy, new materials, resources and environment, space activities, ship making, hydraulic power projects, farming and high tech development parks. The major breakthroughs achieved by the Chinese scientists in the Three-Gorge Dam hydraulic power project, human genome sequencing and high temperature superconductivity have demonstrated the enhanced strength of the Chinese S&T community.
China-US for Sustainable Animal Husbandry
On November 23, 2003, China-US Research Center for the Sustainable Development of Grassland Animal Husbandry celebrated its foundation ceremony at Gansu Agricultural University. The establishment of the Center will not only forcefully stimulate the exchanges and cooperation between China and the US in the field of grassland ecology and animal husbandry, but also play an important role in raising the west region's R&D capacity in the field.
It is reported that the Research Service Center under the US Department of Agriculture has had a couple of years collaboration and exchange of visits with relevant universities in 7 provinces or autonomous regions in China's west section, which resulted in the extensive consensus on the common issues such as the grassland degradation in the west region. On December 2002, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the US Department of Agriculture jointly signed a protocol on S&T cooperation in the field of agriculture under the framework of China-US Agreement on the Cooperation in the Fields of Science and Technology. It is stipulated in the Protocol that both nations will establish the China-US Research Center for the Sustainable Development of Grassland Animal Husbandry on their respective territories with the one for US in Colorado State University and China in Gansu Agricultural University.
China-EU Joint Desertification Control
Recently a seminar on the comprehensive desertification control was organized by the China Association for International S&T Cooperation in Beijing under the co-sponsorship of the Department of International Cooperation, Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Department of Science and Technology of European Union. The seminar has covered varieties of desertification topics including the current status of desertification and associated control theory, the governmental responsibilities in desertification prevention and control, response strategies for desertification control, the comprehensive desertification control and associated monitoring and evaluation system, typical cases on desertification control, making sand industry a new economic growth point, opportunities for the international cooperation and pastureland degradation and its impacts on the ecological environment.
In addition to the numerous meaningful suggestions on desertification control in the northwest section of the country, improving the ecological environment, scientific monitoring, prevention and control of sand storms, the Seminar also made some good points on making the local farmers and herdsmen rich with science and technology. The event has paved a solid ground for the future cooperation between China and Europe in the area.
China's E-Government
The United Nations has recently published the evaluation results on the e-government activities of its members. The results have shown that China ranked an upper middle seating at the 74th place among 191 members. The UN has, under the concerted efforts of international experts and the cooperation of governmental officials of the member states, examined 43,000 websites run by 191 member states, and made it the latest survey result on the pubic IT applications in the world.
The survey had looked into numerous indicators such as the accessibility, national information infrastructures, public participation in the basic social service oriented e-government and worked out the final scores for the maturity of e-government in each member state.
Birds Survey over Yangtze River
Ms. LIANG Haitang, Head of Yangtze River Project under the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) announced at an international seminar on river basin management held on November 10, 2003 that China will launch around February 2004 a bird survey over the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the coastal areas of South China Sea and Yellow Sea. Covering an extensive area embracing five provinces and one municipality, the survey will become a warm-up for the future protection of birds and dynamical ecological environment monitoring in the river basin.
It is reported that under the joint sponsorship by WWW and China State Forestry Bureau, the birds resources survey will cover the wetlands in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai that are located at the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Known for its rich biodiversities and desirable migrant habitats such as the Panyang Lake, Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River Delta, the river basin attracts massive birds migrations in winter. Unfortunately, lacking of the systematic survey of birds resources for many years has seriously hampered the protection and management of these migration habitats.
The joint investigation makes the first of its kind in the river basin and will provide basic data on the distributions of wetlands and migrants over the area before the commercial operation of the Three Gorge Dam hydraulic power project. The effort will also show the birds migration at the early stage of the ecological restoration project for the wetlands. The survey will also collect the ecological improvements brought by the project to reclaim the lake area from the farming activities and the ecological impacts caused before and after the operation of Three Gorge Dam hydraulic power project. In the meanwhile, the survey will focus on the systematic understanding of the distributions of wetlands resources, the current status and possible threats, providing evidences for the further construction and expansion of wetland protection zones.
Silkworm Genome Sequencing
It took only three months for the Chinese scientists headed by Prof. XIANG Zhonghuai of Southwest Agricultural University to map out the domestic silkworm genome from sequencing to work charts integration. The silkworm genome framework charts are made of 5.5 million sequencing reactions, covered 95% of the worm's genome. The development has constituted the largest biological species genome sequenced by the Chinese scientists through the canister method. Researchers have obtained from the sequence 16,948 full genes and 7,285 genetic sections. The bioinformatic analysis has shown that the domestic silkworm has approximately 20,000 genes, of which 6,000 were newly discovered. In the meanwhile, the study team has turned out numerous theoretical findings of important values in the structural features and evolution of domestic silkworm genome and comparative genome study.
High Rise Simulation Platform
It takes 8 years for the China S&T University for National Defense to work out the sophisticated simulation platform for high rise structures. The new simulation system is made up of the full process support for large and sophisticated structures from construction to operation and further to results processing. In addition to its capacity for the full range management and monitoring, the platform is also compatible with other different software and hardware systems. The new system can work in the environment of massive online distribution network to realize resources sharing and temporal and spatial consistency of large sophisticated simulation applications in numerous fields such as traffic control, energy, electric power and equipment development.
Before winning its verification check, the system has found successful applications in the distributive simulation system integration in more than 30 institutions and achieved the fine economic and social benefits. The users' feedback has indicated that the new platform has broad application perspectives for its full functions and numerous merits such as simplified operation, high reliability, full automation, strong extension capacity and fine compatibility.
China's First Proprietary Digital Album
China's first digital picture album developed by Mr. WANG Qi, a microelectronic expert who is working in the United States made its debut in Shanghai on November 26, 2003. Applied with digital technologies such as USB1.1 interface, direct PC connecting for image and data transmission and processing, the new system can update the pictures in the frame at any time rather than the static pictures framed traditionally. The digital album is designed to store 60 pictures and display 10 inch LCD pictures in different display modes such as timed, at interval, cyclic, static and dynamic. In addition to the MP3 playing function, the digital album can also enlarge, downsize and rotate pictures.
To meet the individualized demands, the designers have worked out 16 digital picture album specifications to accommodate differed application needs such as for wedding pictures, family pictures and scenery pictures.
Organic Decomposer
Thanks to their 5-year long concerted efforts, the Yunnan Branch of the Chinese Academy of S&T Development and Yunnan Provincial Institute of Microorganism have jointly developed the proprietary organic decomposer termed Fubei compound bacteria.
The compound bacteria is made of 14 bacteria varieties derived from fungus, actinomyces, microbe and microzyme. The testing result delivered by the Quality Control Center for Microbial Fertilizer under the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has shown that the compound bacteria is featured with toxicity free, high reliability and quality and strong activity. The testing report indicates that there are 100 million and more active bacteria in per gram decomposer and the decomposer's activity may last for one year. The application of the decompose may result in quick temperature rising.
The three-year trial applications have demonstrated the apparently enhanced organic matters and activity of the soil and hence the remarkable yield increase. As shown by the statistics, the tobacco had recorded an increased yield by 17.55%, corn 8.1% and pepper 12.8%. The compound bacteria may also be used to ferment solids such as stalks, sugarcane residues, straw and sewage for odorless, stable, harmless recycling applications. The application may also increase the volume and quality of stalks returned to the fields and help to achieve the goal of protecting the ecological environment of arable lands.
Human Image Identification Chinese scientists have worked on the human image identification technology for more than a decade. On November 2002, the human image identification technology jointly developed by the Institute of Computation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Yinchen S&T Corp had passed the technical verification check. The verification result has shown that the technique may allow the computer to capture man's face within 1/10-1/20 second and complete the identification within one second.
On the basis of their one-year efforts, the researchers and industries have made the technology into the video monitoring equipment able to automatically capture and identify human face for anti-terrorist and public security applications. The equipment has been put into mass production after the trail application at the public security authorities in Shanghai. Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau had with the help of the new system successfully identified 50 and more criminal suspects within a couple of months.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Mao Zhongying, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594
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