BEIJING - China spent an amount equal to 3.69 percent of the country's GDP on education in 2010, a senior official of the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

"Education is a long-term strategic investment, which the ministry will give more priority to in budgets before 2012," said Wu Guosheng, deputy director of the department of education, culture and science and technology under the Ministry of Finance.

In making such resolutions, the central government is trying to fulfill a promise it made in China's Medium- and Long-term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020). The plan calls for the country to spend an amount equal to 4 percent of its GDP on education in 2012.