Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for efforts to improve the country's evaluation mechanism for scientific and technological achievements and further motivate scientists and technicians. 

President Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over the 19th meeting of the Central Committee for deepening overall reform. 

A guideline on improving the evaluation mechanism for scientific and technological achievements was reviewed and approved at the meeting. 

Xi stressed that greater efforts should be made to advance self-reliance in science and technology. China vows to take self-reliance in science and technology as the strategic underpinning for national development, according to the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. 

Big progress has been made in China's innovation capabilities since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, but a classified evaluation mechanism for scientific and technological achievements is yet to be established, said a statement released after the meeting. 

Specified evaluation criteria need to be created for achievements of different categories such as basic research, applied research and technological development, it added. 

A multi-party evaluation mechanism involving the government, social organizations, enterprises and institutions of investment and financing needs to be built, the statement said, highlighting the dominant role of enterprises in innovation. 

It called for improving the reward system for scientific and technological achievements with a focus on rewarding scientists who have made creative contributions. 

The meeting also reviewed and approved several other documents, including a guideline on easing the burden of homework and off-campus training for students in compulsory education, a plan for pilot reform of price setting for medical services, a guideline on deepening reform of the compensation system for ecological protection, and guidelines on strengthening historical and cultural protection and inheritance in urban and rural construction. 

(Cover: A visitor tours a display center of the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Area in southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 22, 2019. /Xinhua)