4. To accelerate progress in science and technology, make special efforts to develop education and give full scope to the abilities of intellectuals.

Science and technology constitute a primary productive force. If the economy is to be revitalized, it is necessary first and foremost to promote the development of science and technology. Only steady progress in those domains will enable us to gain the initiative in sharp competition. At a time when we are facing the major tasks of accelerating development, readjusting the economic structure and improving performance, it is especially necessary to make all sectors of society more aware of the importance of science and technology and of the need to increase investment in them, so that progress in those fields will provide the basis for economic development. Scientific and technological work should be geared to economic development, which is our main field of endeavour. Personnel should be divided rationally among three areas: development research, development of high and new technology and of industries using it, and basic research. Scientists and technicians should set themselves the goal of scaling the heights: the Chinese nation must take its place in the realm of advanced science and technology.

By deepening the reform, we should establish a mechanism for integrating science and technology with the economy, making them real productive forces by speedily commercializing research results. We should constantly improve the protection of intellectual property rights. We should assimilate advanced technologies from abroad and improve upon them. We must increase the contributions of high technology to economic growth, so as to bring about a change from extensive to intensive management of the economy as a whole.

Scientific and technological progress, economic prosperity and social advances are all basically dependent on the raising of the educational level of workers and the training of personnel. Accordingly, we must make education a strategic priority. If we are to modernize China, it is of fundamental importance to raise the ideological and ethical standards and the scientific and educational levels of the whole population. We have to make the educational structure as effective as possible and to do all we can to strengthen basic education, expand vocational and adult education, develop higher education and encourage independent study. Governments at all levels should devote more resources to education and urge all non-governmental sectors to pool funds to open schools of different types, thus breaking up the state monopoly of education. Schools of all types at all levels should implement the Party's principles with regard to education and raise the overall quality of instruction. We should try to eliminate illiteracy among most young and middle-aged people by the end of the century and to institute nine-year compulsory education in most places by that time as well. We must further reform the educational system, the content that is taught and the methods of teaching it, strengthen the training of teachers, grant schools more autonomy and promote the integration of education with the development of science and technology and of the economy.

Intellectuals are members of the working class who have a better scientific and general education than others and who, as pathbreakers, constitute advanced productive forces. They have an especially important role to play in the reform, the opening up and the modernization drive. Whether we do or do not give full scope to their abilities will determine, to a considerable degree, the prosperity or decline of our nation and the success or failure of the drive for modernization. We should strive to create a better environment for intellectuals that will allow them to use all their skills and knowledge, and we should make further efforts to create an atmosphere of respect for learning and for professionally trained people.

We are determined to adopt policies and measures to improve the working, studying and living conditions of intellectuals and to reward handsomely those who make outstanding contributions. We should introduce a regular reward system. We appreciate it when our people studying abroad show concern and support for the drive to modernize the motherland and become involved in it in various ways. When they come back to participate in socialist construction, they will be warmly welcomed no matter what their political attitudes were in the past; proper arrangements will be made for their employment, and they will be allowed to come and go freely and easily. Intellectuals have made tremendous contributions to the cause of socialist modernization. We have no doubt that they will live up to the ardent hopes of the state and the people and prove worthy of the trust placed in them by working even harder to make fresh contributions.

5. To exploit the particular advantages of each region, accelerate its economic development and rationalize the geographical distribution of the different sectors of the economy.

The territory of China is so vast that conditions vary greatly from place to place, and so does the level of economic development. We should try to achieve a rational pattern of industry and promote the healthy development of regional economies under the guidance of unified planning by the state. We should proceed in the light of local conditions and in accordance with a rational division of labour, with all the regions exploiting their own particular advantages for mutual benefit and prosperity.

The coastal region in east China should make every effort to develop an export-oriented economy, concentrating on developing products that yield a high added value, earn foreign exchange and are produced with advanced technology and an efficient use of energy and raw and semifinished materials. The region should use more foreign capital and other foreign resources to achieve a higher growth rate and better economic performance.

Through overall planning, the state should support the central and western regions, which are endowed with rich natural resources, and the border areas there, which have great potential for opening to the outside world. To help establish a market economy, these regions and areas should open up faster to the other parts of the country and to the outside. They should build more infrastructural projects to facilitate the utilization of their natural resources and develop industries and products for which they are particularly well adapted. Where conditions permit, they should build up the export trade so as to stimulate the development of the entire local economy.

Instead of attempting to build complete, self-sufficient economies of their own, the regions should do everything in the interest of the nation as a whole, avoiding construction of redundant projects and duplication of imports. We should promote rational exchange and cooperation between regions, so as to form a new pattern of circulation that will be beneficial to all. In our effort to develop regional economies on the basis of their natural geographical features and existing economic links, we should take full advantage of key cities.

To strengthen national unity, consolidate frontier defence and promote economic development nationwide, it is extremely important to bring about faster development in areas inhabited by people of minority nationalities. The poor regions must shake off poverty and set out on the road to prosperity as soon as possible. That is one of our strategic objectives for the second stage of China's development. The state should adopt effective policies to support areas inhabited by people of minority nationalities, the old revolutionary base areas, border areas and poor areas. In one way or another, economically developed regions should also help them develop.