China opens up to scientific collaboration

Brussels, 09 May 2003

China has established scientific cooperation ties with 152 countries and regions and has signed agreements with 96 of them, the Chinese Minister for Science and Technology, Guanhua Xu, has announced

Highlighting the increasingly active role that his country is playing in international cooperation, the minister claimed that China has implemented a series of new polices aimed at encouraging more open international scientific cooperation in a number of fields. He also drew attention to the participation of Chinese researchers in the EU's framework programmes.

This eagerness for collaboration is not, however, restricted to EU level. Bilaterally, China has established eight joint laboratories with France in the fields of information technology, automation and biomedicine, and a number of joint laboratories with Germany in similar fields. Joint projects are also being carried out with the UK and Italy. China is also now a member of over 1,000 international scientific organisations.

The country has plans to become yet more involved in multilateral cooperation, and is now in negations with the EU and its partners on joining both the European satellite navigation project Galileo, and the international thermal nuclear fusion experiment reactor (ITER).

Mr Xu also invited international academic organisations to set up their offices in China, and pledged that the Chinese government would provide the necessary support, including funding.

CORDIS RTD-NEWS / © European Communities