Education Tied to IndustryThe construction and development of university science parks are playing a significant role in incubating new and high-tech enterprises and promoting the progress of the high-tech industry, a senior official said Sunday."Economic growth in the 21st century is more and more dependent on the development of new and high-technologies. University science parks are good ways of exploiting scientific developments made by universities," Wei Yu, vice-minister of education said at the Fourth Annual Conference of East Asian Science Parks 2000 held in Shenyang. At present, 220,000 students are currently pursuing master or doctorate degrees in China, of whom 88.1 per cent of the doctorate students and 95.3 per cent of master students are in universities, according to Wei. A total of 610,000 people, or 21 per cent of all scientific researchers in the country are working in universities. As many as 101 State key labs have been established in universities, accounting for two-thirds of all the key labs in the country. "University science parks greatly promote a combination of production, study and research, and attract foreign capital," she said. Zhang Jing'an, director of the China Torch High Tech Development Centre under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the 53 State new and high-tech development zones, most of which set up around universities and science parks, have seen rapid economic growth in the past decade. Statistics indicate that in 1999, the total industrial and trade income of the 53 high-tech zones surged to 677.5 billion yuan (US$81.6 billion), up by 40 per cent, on a year-on-year basis. Total industrial production output topped 594.4 billion yuan (US$71.6 billion), an increase of 37 per cent on last year's figures. Many large transnational companies have established research and development centres in Chinese universities or sought ties with them. (chinadaily.com.cn) |
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