Beijing

Scientists are to play a leading role in a campaign launched by China to develop its economically disadvantaged western region. The region, covering an area of 5.4 million square kilometres, includes the Tibetan and Loess plateaux, and is home to many of China's poorest people. It also includes Shaanxi, which was the centre of ancient Chinese civilization in the Tang dynasty a thousand years ago.

The science ministry has been allocated 50 million yuan (US$6.1 million) to spend in the western region over the coming year. It plans to build laboratories and engineering centres in local universities, to create an early warning system for monitoring ecological and environmental changes in key parts of the region, to set up an agricultural information network, and to conduct demonstration projects for boosting new technologies in environmental protection.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences will also invest 250 million yuan in its own development plan for the region to complement a training programme for PhD students it launched four years ago. Funds for that programme will be almost doubled.

The academy's new programme will study the mechanism of environmental deterioration in western China and establish pilot projects for sustainable development. The academy will also select practical technologies, such as water saving and clean energy technologies, to be used in the region, says Li Rui, deputy director of the academy's Institute of Water Conservation near Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi.

The State Council, China's central government, has set up a special committee chaired by the prime minister, Zhu Rongji, to guide a government-wide campaign to build up infrastructure in western China. Funding will come from the issue of 100 billion yuan in long-term treasury bonds, announced on 5 March.

But the committee faces a daunting task. Although Shaanxi has China's third highest density of universities and research institutes, young scientists prefer to move east, where salaries and working conditions are better.

“Strong in science does not necessarily mean strong in economy,” says Li. “We need to find ways of applying scientific results, and using science to guide economic development.” Technology transfer is particularly difficult in the western provinces, where industries are mostly state-run and tend to be burdened with debt, he says.

However, Li remains optimistic that some of the problems will be solved. “We will give incentives to encourage researchers from eastern institutes to take part in research projects in the west, and western researchers are also encouraged to conduct exchanges with their eastern colleagues.”