Meanwhile, China badly needs to change its current development model, which relies heavily on huge consumption of resources and energy but constrains the supply of them, to sustain its economic miracle of 9.7 per cent average annual growth over the past 28 years.

As a result, these pro-business institutional and economic measures came up. And the companies, especially those in manufacturing, energy, information technology and agriculture, may get the lion's share of R&D investment. Its ratio to GDP is going to rise to 2.5 percent in 2020 from 1.34 percent in 2005.

But these measures, which are aimed to sustain this economic growth miracle, cannot necessarily lead to rosy employment prospects, especially for the poor. The shortage of skilled workers that has arisen in the country's economic powerhouses in eastern and southern China has already started to sound alarm bells.

And generally, the situation in China is that strong economic growth has not been matched by equally strong job creation.

The International Labor Organization said that while China's GDP grew 38.3 percent between 1999 and 2003, only 4.3 percent additional jobs were created.

China's low labor absorption partly reflects a long-term structural change from employment-intensive growth to capital-intensive growth, especially in industry. And the current innovation strategy will accelerate this trend, which means that economic growth will result in the creation of fewer jobs than ever before.

However, China's huge population is forecast to increase to 1.6 billion by 2030 from the current 1.3 billion, 60 percent of them still living in rural areas, 135 million struggling in poverty, and only 0.7 percent of its farmers having basic scientific literacy.

Nobel laureate Arthur Lewis already pointed out in the 1950s that when people move from low to high productivity activities, income inequality first rises and then falls. Consistently improving the skills of its masses of poorly educated workers will help solve employment problems resulting from innovation and technological advancement.

Given China's experience in successfully tackling the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and ensuring its long-lasting economic boom, this country can make it if it is determined enough. Since 1998, huge amounts of treasury bonds have been invested in roads, ports, embankments and other infrastructure.

It should now invest in human resources. Issuing treasury bonds as vocational coupons for farmers and the poor is an option. What's more, China has boasted of its massive financial coffers and huge foreign reserves.

The central government decided to invest 1.1 billion yuan ($137.5 million) in 2007 in science training in rural areas and it is a 53 percent increase from 2006. But that means about five farmers, on average, can receive training worth $1 in 2007 on the condition that there should be a 100 percent guarantee of no embezzlement in the process.

It is necessary to at least double or even triple this investment. Thorough supervision of this investment is also vital.

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