Country honors Chinese scientists for innovative products and research

Chinese scientists and research projects were honored Friday with national science awards in a high-profile event to recognize the innovative spirit that is key to the country’s future development.

The Chinese government has prioritized innovation and decided in 2012 to take an innovation-driven development strategy in a bid to increase production and boost the overall national strength.

Basic research, a fundamental source of innovation, has received longer and more stable support, while the transformation of science and technology achievements has been emphasized.

The country has accelerated the construction and improvement of a national innovation system, allowing scientists more say on research choices and encouraging enterprises to play a bigger role in R&D investment.

Painstaking efforts have resulted in great progress. The research programs honored on Friday, including the invention of a highly effective catalyst for drug production and a stem-cell treatment for lupus, are among the long list of China’s advances in recent years.

China’s pursuit of innovation, largely relying on sci-tech progress, has a clear reason: China will not go back to its old development path of high energy-consumption, severe pollution and cheap labor. China is striving to shift to middleand high-end manufacturing industries, and it needs to upgrade technologies.

China pledges to cut its carbon emissions and return blue skies and clean water to its people, and it needs solutions from science and technology.

The article is a commentary from the Xinhua News Agency. opinion@ globaltimes.com.cn