China's science and technology policies should be self-reliance and self-strengthening, according to the country's annual Central Economic Work Conference held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, where Chinese leaders decided priorities for the economic work in 2023.

Xiao Youdan, a researcher at the Institutes of Science and Development under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with the Science and Technology Daily that this year's meeting highlighted the key role of sci-tech policy in the macroeconomic policy system, and strengthened the coordination and cooperation among sci-tech, fiscal, monetary, industrial and social policies. 

To achieve sci-tech self-reliance and self-strengthening, China must be independent and able to control key and core technologies, build deep technological capabilities, and create major original scientific ideas and technological achievements in a sustainable way, according to Ding Minglei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

Ding added that the country's high-quality innovation factors should be concentrated, innovative talents emerge in an endless stream and the society should be full of innovative vitality.

The country should also uphold independent innovation while opening up and cooperating on a larger scale, in wider areas and at deeper levels, Ding said.

China will coordinate in education, science and technology and human resources, said the meeting, adding that the country will carry out an array of national-level major science and technology projects, giving full play to the role of government in leading the work on making breakthroughs in key and core technologies and highlighting the principal role of enterprises in technological innovation.

The implementation of national-level major science and technology projects will help break the nation's technology bottleneck, thus realizing key and core technologies in an independent and controllable way, Ding said.

It's urgent to change the mode of education and personnel training. The country should integrate innovative thinking into preschool, basic and higher education, strengthen the combination of science and industry in education to cultivate more talents, and attract top scientific and technological talents worldwide, according to Ding.

(With input from Xinhua)