Kapil Sibal Begins his China visit to Strengthen S&T Cooperation

The Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sibal is visiting China to explore possibilities to enhance bilateral interactions to strengthen cooperation. During the visit he will hold meetings with his Chinese counterpart Mr. Xu Guanhua and visit several science and technology institutes in Beijing. These include National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, National Satellite Meteorological Centre and Beijing Genomics Institute. The Minister will inaugurate the “Made in India and India Tech Show” and deliver the keynote address at the India-China Business Summit on Friday. He will also participate in the World Economic Forum which is opening in Beijing on Sunday. The visit is part of activities marking the India-China Friendship Year 2006.

Specifically in the field of Science and Technology cooperation is presently being effected under an inter-governmental S&T Agreement signed between the two countries in Beijing during the visit of Rajiv Gandhi on December 22, 1988. The implementation of the agreement is carried out primarily by the Department of S&T of the Ministry of S&T on the Indian side and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). An Indo-China Joint S&T Committee is in place which regularly draws up specific programmes of cooperative activities in this field. To give more impetus to this cooperation, separate MoUs have also been concluded with Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to promote basic science research, with Chinese Academy of Sciences and Applied Science and Technology, with State Administration of Foreign Experts’ Affairs (SAFEA) to encourage consultancy services in each other’s infrastructure development activities. Besides this separate arrangements are also in place in inter agency levels to promote thematic areas vis. Meteorology, Ocean Science and Technology, Space Science and Technology, Biotechnology etc. During the visit of China’s State Councilor in charge of S&T to India in November 2004 Mme Chen Zhili and Shri Kapil Sibal agreed to establish a Joint Ministerial Steering Committee as an Apex Body to review the implementation of the agreement and various MoUs with the basic objective to impart a direction for future cooperation. This was further reiterated in the joint statement issued by the two Ministers during the Chinese Premier’s visit to India in April 2005. Shri Sibal’s visit is significant in taking forward this initiative.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : September 06, 2006