SHANG Yong, Vice Minister of Science and Technology revealed at the EU-China High-level Forum on S&T Policy and Strategy opened on the 12th that China was going to reinforce China-EU cooperation in large projects such as the "Galileo" Global Navigation Satellite System Project and "Big Science Projects" cooperation and develop chances of cooperation in the hi-tech areas, such as energy (including hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion), space technology, biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology and aeronautics, and with regard to global issues such as health and medical science, environment (including climatic changes) and resources.

EU and its member states are China's important partners in terms of international cooperation in S&T. China-EU has been making joint efforts for the continuous improvement and stable expansion of the mechanism, scope and content of such cooperation. So far, more than 400 cooperation projects have been implemented between China and EU and frequent expert visits and communications with more than 4,000 man-times have been organized, involving a total appropriation of approximately 300 million Euros.

Over the recent years, especially since 1998, Chinese scientists have been actively participating in the EU Framework Program for S&T in accordance with the EU-China S&T Agreement. The total number of projects participated by Chinese scientists have come up to more than 130 and a large batch of large projects in conformity with the focus of both sides appeared in the areas of mobile communication, material, food quality and safety and "SARS". China currently participates in about four percent of the EU FP projects. With the signing and implementation of the China-EU Agreements on "Galileo" Program, the China-EU cooperation in S&T has been fully promoted and is becoming an important component of the overall China-EU relationship.

"Nearly 50% of the technologies introduced by China are from Europe and China-EU cooperation in S&T has promoted the technology transfer, human resource exchange and economic and trade cooperation between China and the European countries." said Vice Minister SHANG. Apart from the R&D projects, new forms of cooperation, e.g. joint laboratories or test centers, should be encouraged and tried. In addition, we also encourage the Chinese and EU enterprises to participate in the S&T cooperation, in particular in those with regard to hi-tech development and industrialization.

SHANG pointed out that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of formal relationship between China and EU and in 2006 the 6th EU Framework Program for Research and Technology Development is going to end and the 7th Framework Program will be formulated and launched. By that time, China is going to implement its 11th Five-year Plan and the Medium and Long-term Development Plan for S&T. The potential for China-EU S&T cooperation is there and huge.

(Source: most.gov.cn)