The 2016 Strategic Advisory and Comprehensive Evaluation Committee called its first meeting on April 28 to advise on and review the 13th Five-year Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation.

Minister Wan Gang pointed out that the 13th Five-year Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation is a strategically important document to guide China’s development of science, technology and innovation in the coming five years. Drafting the plan is of great significance to our completion of the key objectives outlined in the national five-year plan, and to our detailed arrangement for the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. He hoped the experts will contribute useful ideas and opinions regarding the plan’s overall directions, key objectives and major reform measures.

The experts at the meeting held a unanimous viewpoint that the draft plan has thoroughly grasped the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Sessions of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as well as the spirit of a series of important discourses given by General Secretary Xi Jinping, fully put into practice the key objectives outlined in the 13th Five-year Plan and the Plan on the Innovation-driven Development Strategy, catered to the worldwide development trend of science, technology and innovation and the practical demands of China’s social and economic development, paid equal attention to S&T development and reform of the S&T system, and reflected the macro coordination of science, technology and innovation. They suggested that the draft plan be further modified and then submitted to review and release.