A Chinese team works on a cat food feeding machine at the finals in Beijing of a youth innovation contest this month. Two reports detailed the best cities for innovation. YANG KEJIA/CHINA NEWS SERVICE Beijing narrowly beat Shanghai as China's most ideal city for scientific research and innovation this year, while central and central-western provinces are catching up fast. The Ministry of Science and Technology published two reports on Wednesday about China's innovation status in 2016 and 2017. One evaluates the overall innovation capability, and the other is a detailed ranking and analysis of each province's innovation conditions and resources, from funding to market. According to the reports, China's top five most-innovative municipalities and provinces on a scale of 100 are Beijing, 85; Shanghai, 84; Tianjin, 80; and the provinces of Guangdong, 77, and Jiangsu, 76. Last year, Shanghai topped the list with 84.57 points. The points are calculated based on the area's R&D spending, industrial productivity, commercialization of research findings, economic structure, talent pool, number of patents, environment and other factors affecting science and innovation. The bottom five areas are the provinces of Qinghai, 42; Yunnan, 41, and Guizhou, 40.83; and the Xinjiang Uygur, 40.75; and Tibet autonomous regions, 31. The 2017 average innovation index for all provinces is 67.57, a 1.08-point increase from a year earlier. In general, the whole nation's innovation capability has improved remarkably over past five years, said Xu Jing, director of the ministry's Office of Innovation and Development, adding that the nation's average has increased by 7.3 points in the past five years. The coastal provinces are taking more than half of China's overall innovation output, but the central and central-western provinces are catching up fast, he said. Some notable examples include Hubei province, seventh place; the municipality of Chongqing, eighth place; and Anhui province, 15th place, all of which jumped several ranks in the past five years. As for western provinces like Sichuan and Shaanxi, their overall innovation capability is growing at breakneck pace, but they still lag behind other more developed provinces, Xu said. Innovations from western provinces are also more closely linked with the Belt and Road Initiative, which can be a unique and fruitful development opportunity. To help western regions catch up, local governments have increased funding for basic research and commercialization of technologies, said Wu Yishan, vice-president of the ministry's Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development. In the past five years, western provinces saw a 68.6 percent growth in funding, slightly higher than eastern provinces' 67.3 percent. At the same time, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has quadrupled its patent outputs, while the Tibet, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, and Qinghai have doubled theirs. Although China's patent and innovation outputs are rising, the reports also pointed out some issues, such as the average wages for researchers in 24 out of the 31 survey provinces, are below the national line. At the same time, funding from governments and companies is starting to slow down in 2017, and pollution in more than a dozen provinces still fails to reach national standards. personalised silicone wristbandscustom silicone wristbands202mm to inches
GENEVA -- Health plays an important role in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and China is actively involved in global health governance, a senior health official from China said Sunday.Ma Xiaowei, head of China's National Health Commission, is leading the Chinese delegation to the 71st World Health Assembly (WHA) that is to kick off in Geneva Monday.At a press conference on Sunday, he said China attaches great importance to safeguarding its citizens' health and promoting the wellbeing of people's livelihood, and China is also actively engaged in global health governance.Focusing on relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs), China has elevated its Healthy China initiative to a national strategy and released the Healthy China 2030 Outline for its national health progress, he said."China has developed extensive cooperation with international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to actively improve global health governance," he added.As the world's biggest developing country, China has proven experience on multiple fronts of health governance and is ready to share it with other countries, said Ma."Working with research institutes in Africa, China has launched joint projects to adapt for use in Africa its practices in the prevention and control of malaria and schistosomiasis," he said, explaining that China is also a pioneer in global emergency response.Over the years, China has continuously engaged in health assistance to other developing countries. Since 1963, China has sent medical teams to 69 developing countries, according to the official.In 2014, China sent over 1,200 health care professionals and public health experts to help African nations in their response to Ebola. Ma said China is prepared to do so for the current Ebola crisis facing the Democratic Republic of Congo.
