Shi Yigong, a national adviser, is interviewed at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. [Photo/Xinhua]

Cutting-edge and core technology cannot be imported, it can only be created by Chinese people themselves, Shi Yigong, a leading scientist and president of Westlake University told reporters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday.

"China's higher education has made a great leap, while it is still lagging behind in some basic research areas. There's still some breakthroughs to be made and some demands from society to be met," he said. "So we need to nurture more outstanding talent with creativity."

He added this is the target and the direction of China's education sector for the future and is also why he and his colleagues had spared no efforts over the past two years in establishing the new type of higher education institution in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Shi also said the establishment of Westlake University is a fruit of the development of China and the great leap in the country's higher education.

The university received more than 6,000 job applications from all over the world during the past two years.

"We finally selected and hired about 100 world-class scientists from among them, and more than 80 percent were talented Chinese students nurtured by our country and then sent to study or do research overseas," he said.