High-tech Research to Turn CommercialZhejiang Province announced plans to speed up development of its high-tech industry."We will continue to reform our outdated research structure and establish technological innovation based on commercially viable enterprises in the near future," said Wang Ziqing, deputy director of the Science and Technology Commission of Zhejiang Province. Early this year, the research institute of Zhejiang Provincial Medical Academy was transformed into the shareholding company. Mao Jiangsen, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, became the biggest shareholder of the new company. "Surviving on financial allocations from central or local governments, the research projects of higher education bodies and independent research institutes are out of line with market demands. This should be changed as soon as possible," Wang said. According to the plan announced on July 11, most of the 208 research institutes in Zhejiang Province are expected to be turned into independent firms or merged with other enterprises by 2005, so that a technological innovation system can take shape. Governmental investment is expected to continue to promote development of the high-tech sector. The government will appropriate 320 million yuan (US$39 million) to develop products and commercialize high-tech academic research in the province in the period of 1999-2002. Each year 7.5 million yuan (US$900,000) will be allocated to pay interest on loans granted to the high-tech sector. By the year 2005, enterprises in the high-tech sector will be required to put no less than 5 per cent of their sales volume into research and development. |
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