CRI听力：Hu Jintao: China will Spare No Efforts to Develop Science & Technology

Chinese president Hu Jintao says China will continue to prioritize the country's development of science and technology, regarding it as vital for economic and social progress. Zheng Chenguang reports.

Reporter:
In a conference marking the 50th birthday of the China Association for Science and Technology, or CAST, president Hu Jintao says China will strive to enhance its self-innovation capacity in all areas.

"Any country, any nation, if it wants to develop and create benefits for the people, has to emphasize self-innovation. China will persistently place the development of science and technology as a strategic priority. It will increase self-innovation spending so as to create favourable conditions to boost creativity."

The president has also spoken highly of Chinese scientists' backbreaking work, and encouraged them to catch up in fields that lag behind developed countries.

CAST President Han Qide says scientists at the association have done extensive work to gear up the country's scientific development. (WWw.hxen.net)

"In the past 50 years, CAST has experienced a sound and vigorous expansion in its network, spanning both rural and urban areas. It has made great progress in terms of prospering the development of science and technology, promoting and diffusing science and technology, and correlating science and technology with economic development."

CAST is the country's biggest non-governmental organization for scientists and engineers working in the fields of science and technology. With 50 years of development, it encompasses over 40 million Chinese scientists and 160 science societies nationwide

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news.