NEWS BRIEFS

China Invested about 20Bln Yuan in Committing to Genetically Modified Technology Research

As a new technology in improving selective breeding， transgenic research and the application of genetically modified technology has gained great trendy the whole world around. However， genetically modified industry lack of leading role in promotion in China. For nearly 20 years， the development of genetically modified technology has some outcomes， but far from playing a real important role in the agricultural industry. So many reasons should be considered， but the key points lie in two main ones presented below：

Firstly， the international competitiveness of Chinas seed enterprises is relatively weak， and has not yet formed the innovative mechanism. The genetically modified technology is different from the conventional agricultural technology， which embodies the high technology characteristics of modern biotechnology. The great success achieved by genetically modified technology in the industrialization process relies on the intensive management of modern enterprises. Experts believe that the gap between China and foreign countries lies in the top biotechnology companies participation in the related research and campaign. The vast majority of seed enterprise is still lack of research and development system， and the average research investment account for less than 1% of the total sales. In addition， the seed enterprises with commercial breeding ability in China are really hard to find.

Secondly， Chinese people have not yet formed a scientific and comprehensive understanding of the genetically modified technology. For quite some time， Chinese community has a lot of controversy on the safety of genetically modified technology. Whereas， this suspended question has been clearly answered by WHO. The genetically modified technology is neutral in itself， but the products are required to carry out a series of safety evaluation to see whether they are harmful or not. That is to say， after the approval of the safety evaluation of genetically modified products are guaranteed， equivalent to the traditional food.

Internationally， there are basically two types of safety evaluations for genetically modified technologies： One is the United States model， that is， assess the genetically modified products； the other is the EU model， that is， to assess the process in employing the genetically modified technology. Whereas in China we combine both these two methods to assess the genetically modified products， which might be the most strict evaluation system as far as we can see. In addition， people in dozens of countries around the world that have a long history of employing genetically modified technology has proved its safety.