Science and technology have long been primary productive forces in economic development. What then are the forces driving science and technology? The answer is human resources and educational development. Guangdong's leaders understand this relationship very well.

In 2003, only 36 out of every 10,000 persons in Guangdong were engaged in Science and Technology activities, compared with 109 persons in Shanghai. And currently, 2.965 million employees in Guangdong have vocational certificates but only 4 percent of them have advanced certificates, far lower than advanced countries' correspondent indicators, which are between 30 and 40 percent. The shortage of talents and skilled labors in Guangdong has limited the province's development to continue as the world's manufacturing base.

Magnet to talents

The Guangdong government will build mechanisms for producing and attracting talents to work in the province. The professionals working in the province are expected to increase by 11 percent annually in the following years, so that Guangdong will have 4.46 million professionals in 2007.

Guangdong will establish a special fund to offer courses and training for administrative staff, entrepreneurs, technology professionals and skilled persons in various fields. The annual input is targeted at 30 million RMB. Another special fund with an annual budget of 30 million RMB will be set up for higher education institutions' experts and professionals recruitment. In 2004, the universities added 51 PhD tutors and 2,652 professors. In March, Guangdong held a job fair in Beijing, the city clustering dozens of top universities, in a bid to attract more domestic talents to come to the province. Meanwhile, Guangdong is making effort to improve its appeal to Chinese talents who had studied abroad.

In addition, Guangdong will set up a series of awards for talents and skilled laborers who have made outstanding contributions to the province's development.

Production base produce talents

Guangdong listed "accelerating the development of higher education" as one of its top ten key projects in 2003 in an effort to promote a knowledge-based work force. Guangzhou University Town was unveiled in 2004 from a commitment to produce more talents for the province and to increase the scientific and technological aspects of Guangdong's research and development capacity to ensure the province's long-term social and economic development.

In August this year, the State Ministry of Education signed an agreement with Guangdong to appropriate 1.6 billion RMB to Sun Yat-sen University and South China University of Technology from 2004 to 2008. One month later, the two parties signed another agreement, through which Guangdong will develop its technology innovation as its competitive advantage through strengthening its key universities' research and development facilities.

Institutions of higher learning in Guangdong increased enrollment to 20 percent in 2004. This year, the province has 34 universities and enrolls an additional 30,000 students compared with 2004, the biggest annual increase ever. The number of postgraduate students is expected to increase 25 percent by the end of 2005. Guangdong's higher education institutions had a funding increase of 200 million RMB in 2004. Funding is expected to increase by 460 million RMB this year.

According to the province's education moderation program, Guangdong's higher education enrollment rate will exceed 28 percent and enroll 1.3 million university students by 2010. These two indicators are expected to surge to 50 percent and 2 million students respectively in 2020.

Guangdong is attaching increased attention to vocational educations. The province founded its first Vocational Education College in 1999 and currently owns 70 such colleges. By the end of 2002, vocational schools totaled 1,062 with 11.16 million students and provided over four million skilled labors for factories in the province. The province will have 45 vocational education colleges by the end of 2005, enrolling 280,000 students and 20 schools of technology, enrolling 100,000 students.

Guangdong government officials have set aside special funds for developing key vocational colleges and key courses in these schools. By April 2003, the province's appropriation had exceeded 300 million RMB. Guangdong officials also launched a series of projects in vocational high schools to train more skilled laborers. About 100 state-level key schools were developed along with 125 vocational training centers and 40 provincial key courses.

In primary and secondary educations, provincial planners launched a free-of-charge nine-year compulsory education program in 16 under-developed counties in this autumn and the service will be available to all rural areas of the province in 2008.

By 2007, several projects will be initiated to improve the education in rural areas. These include improving rural schools' facilities and environment with a maximum of 50 students in one compulsory-education class, expanding high schools and increasing teacher recruitment.

Editor: Yan