Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses at the academician conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing June 5. (Xinhua Photo)

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday called on China's scientists to work towards enhancing China's innovation capability and building China into an innovation-oriented country to "provide strong scientific and technological support" to China's development.

Hu made the remarks at the academician conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), which opened here on Monday morning.

Other top Party and state leaders Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan also attended the opening ceremony of the science summit.

"Science and technology, especially strategic high technology, is increasingly becoming the decisive force in economic and social development and the focus of competition of comprehensive national strength," Hu said at the conference.

Photo taken on June 5, 2006 shows the academician conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. The four-day, 13th CAS conference and eighth CAE conference were opened simultaneously on June 5. (Xinhua Photo)
 
He urged taking action quickly to catch up with developed countries in scientific and technological development and to rely more on scientific and technological advances and innovation to realize rapid and sound economic and social development.

Hu praised the CAS and CAE members, China's top scientists, for making excellent contributions to major state science projects, including the manned space flight, super hybrid rice and high-performance super servers.

At the four-day conference, the CAS is to revise its constitution, elect new leadership for its academic divisions, and elect the seventh batch of its foreign associates.

The CAE will elect a new leadership for its presidium. A total of 20 senior engineers will be awarded the Sixth Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Prize at the conference.

Academic workshops will also be held during the conference.

Under the CAS and CAE constitutions, the two academies must organize conferences of academicians once every two years. The CAS has 704 academicians and foreign associates while the CAE has 701 academicians and foreign associates.

Editor: Yan