Creativity is the soul of a nation and an inexhaustible source of a country's prosperity. The key to creation and innovation lies in human resources, whose development depends on education. Only a well-developed education can sustain scientific and technological progress and economic development. Scientific and technological strength and the educational level of a nation have always been an important yardstick for measuring the overall national strength and the civilization of a society. Like indispensable wheels, they propel a country to prosperity.
China is one of the cradles of world civilization.
Its education and science both have a glorious history. Since the founding of New China, especially over the past 20 years of reform and opening-up, the Chinese Government has always attached great importance to the development of science, technology and education. We have given a prominent position to the strategy of economic development through science-technology and education and a sustainable development strategy when drawing up the blueprint for the modernization drive. Recently we have decided that the Chinese Academy of Sciences should take the lead in introducing a pilot programme of instituting a national knowledge innovation system. That is, to identify new objectives of scientific and technological development, readjust the existing operational mechanism, strive for more and greater scientific and technological innovations and put in place an innovation system for China in view of the need of a development strategy for China of the next century and the prospects of the world frontier sciences.