"High-level university construction" became a hot topic during the fourth session of the 11th Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the fourth session of the 12th Fujian People's Congress, held Jan 10-15.

Fujian has given priority to the development of Fuzhou University, Fujian Normal University and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU). From 2013 to 2015, the province allocated 690 million yuan ($105.27 million) to the three universities as higher education improvement.

The three universities now boast 89 percent of Fujian's national talents, 96 percent of its national key research projects, 61 percent of its national fund projects and 80 percent of its licensed patents.

FAFU has focused on talent introduction. In 2015, the university introduced 10 national talents. Ming Ruiguang, a professor at FAFU, made a breakthrough in research on the pineapple genome last year, which will help improve pineapple varieties and increase output.