China to accelerate building Beijing into int'l sci-tech innovation hub

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Science and Technology issued a work plan on Wednesday to build Beijing into a major international sci-tech innovation center in the world by 2025.

The plan was jointly formulated by 12 departments, with the aim of accelerating sci-tech self-reliance, supporting high quality development, and transforming the city into a major science center and global innovation hub.

The plan defines the development goals of making Beijing a source of technological innovation in cutting-edge science and emerging industries, and a location for the convergence of global innovation elements.

The plan emphasizes increasing support for basic research in areas such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and life sciences, and making arrangements for cutting-edge scientific research in fields like artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

The plan also proposes to effectively solve a series of key and core technical problems and calls for keeping research and development (R&D) costs to about 6 percent of regional GDP. Meanwhile, basic research should account for about 17 percent of R&D costs.

The annual added value of high-tech industries will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan (about $172 billion), while the number of R&D workers will be around 260 out of every 10,000 people employed, according to the plan.