国内英语新闻:China to kick off second national investigation on R&D resources

BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will implement a nation-wide investigation to find more research and development (R&D) resources to promote the country's agriculture, manufacturing, information technologies and other major industries. 

    The investigation will provide basic scientific data for policy-making of the nation's social and economic development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a circular on its official website Saturday.

    It will also help the government monitor and evaluate the ability to make independent innovation as an effort to make China an innovation-oriented country, it said.

    Six ministries and commissions of the State Council, China's Cabinet, will jointly conduct and finish the investigation by the end of the year. The first such investigation was conducted in 2000.

    Statisticians around the nation will survey R&D-intensive enterprises and institutions in all the major industries.

    The survey will focus on the personnel, spending, equipment, projects and institutions for research and development.

    Moreover, many experts believe the investigation will help China stop wasteful spending in scientific research and promote the national sharing of resources, such as to stop squandering money in redundant purchases of laboratory equipment.

    China's 2008 research and development spending of the GDP was 457 billion yuan (66.9 billion U.S.

    dollars), an increase of 23.2 percent from 2007, accounting for 1.52 percent of the annual GDP.