A national conference aiming to aid the development of organizations providing intermediary support for science and technology was held in Beijing Monday.
Xu Guanhua, minister of science and technology, pointed out that such intermediary organizations, which include incubators and technology promotion services, are the backbone of scientific innovation and also the main power behind scientific services.
Sci-tech intermediary organizations provide a direct link with society by translating results, giving scientific appraisal, deploying resources and other specialized services, Xu said.
Since China began its reform and opening-up, there has been a rapid development of sci-tech intermediary organizations.
Statistics show that there are currently over 60,000 sci-tech intermediary organizations, employing more than 1.1 million workers.
Xu also pointed out that the diversity of functions of these organizations is of great significance for their development and also the main link for speeding up the industrialization needed for development.
It is imperative, Xu emphasized, to build a public scientific information platform and to promote the internationalization of sci-tech intermediary organizations.
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2002)
