China's remarkable achievements in science and technology are inseparable from the positive environment Chinese policy-makers have created over the past decades, a Japanese expert said.
"When China rolled out a plan for reforming the science and technology sector in 1985, virtually no one outside the country heard of it, because at that time nobody would associate China with high-tech," said Atsushi Sunami, an expert at Japan's Science and Technology Agency.
"But now, nobody would laugh on mentioning China's science and technology," he said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Sunami has long been engaged in the comparative study on China's national innovation policies. He has witnessed the number of scientific researchers grow steadily in the past few decades. Among them, some are returnees from the United States, Europe and Japan, and some are young people inspired by the older generations.
"I believe this would not have happened without the reform and opening-up policy," he said.
"In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese government tried its best to create a conducive atmosphere for scientists and researchers to return from developed countries and work for China," said Sunami.
"This effort is unprecedented and has paid off," he said.
Looking into the future, the Japanese expert said he was optimistic about the prospects of China's scientific advances.
"If scientific research continue to win enough support from the fiscal and financial departments, China's science and technology are expected to keep developing rapidly in the next 20 years," he said.
"A large number of young people are involved in researches such as the mapping of the rice genome or human genome. They are doing the same things as we do in the developed countries," Sunami said.
He was even more amazed that wherever he went during his stay in China, he would encounter poeple who were thinking and approaching things from a global perspective.
"As long as these people play an important role in the development of China's science and technology, I wouldn't doubt the progress the country will make in the next 20 years."
According to Sunami, China's rich human resources give it an unrivaled edge.
China should make full use of its talented people and try to make progress in areas with Chinese characteristics, for example, the pharmaceutical industry and clinical medicine, he said.
"China has a long tradition of scientific research. If China can combine its tradition with the world's most cutting-edge technologies and find a development mode suitable to itself, China can be even stronger in this sector," he said.
"China will have a lot of opportunities in the next 20 years. Let's wait and see," said Sunami. |
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