China makes progress in original innovation, – official

"China has made great progress in original innovation and science and technology development", – said Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang.

"China has substantially increased funding for basic research, with an average annual growth rate of 16.9 percent", – Wang said at a press conference, informed The Xinhua News Agency.

"The spending on basic researches has reached six percent of the total research and development (R&D) spending", – he added.

"China has become the second-largest contributor of high-quality scientific and technological papers in the world", – said Xu Jing, an official with China's Ministry of Science and Technology.

"The number of citations of China's high-level academic papers in 12 fields including materials science, chemistry, engineering technology, mathematics and physics ranked among the top two in the world", – said Xu.

According to Wang, China is actively promoting building regional innovation hubs and encouraging regions with proper conditions to take the lead in innovation-driven development.

He said that the total economic output created by the high-tech zones across the country accounted for more than 12 percent of the whole country.