CHINA

Government aims big money at top universities

Officials said recently that China will devote more resources to reforming its manufacturing sector with new, innovative technologies, while improving the higher education system's ability to produce quality talent capable of original, ground-breaking work, reports China Daily.

China will invest around CNY110 billion (US$17 billion) by 2020 to help the country's top 42 universities become first-class institutions, while creating 137 universities with first-class standing in specific fields, Yang Wei, former director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, said during a panel discussion at the 20th annual meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, which opened last weekend.

During the opening ceremony, Zhou Ji, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said high-quality talent can promote greater use of new technologies in China's manufacturing sector and help turn China into a world-class manufacturing powerhouse by 2035.
Full report on the China.org.cn site