(Economic Observation) China leads the world in the growth of research and experiment funding. What role has it played?

　　China News Service, Beijing, September 22 (Reporter Wang Enbo) China's official data released on the 22nd showed that China's research and experimental development (R&D) expenditures reached a new high in 2020, and the total amount exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below) .

From 2016 to 2019, China's R&D expenditure increased by an average annual rate of 11.8%, which was much faster than the United States (7.3%) and Japan (0.7%) and other technological powerhouses.

　　The total amount of R&D expenditures has reached new highs year after year, and the growth rate has also led the world. How did China do it?

　　Observing the growth trend of China's R&D expenditure in recent years, one can find a major feature: the main role of corporate R&D investment is constantly being highlighted.

As early as 2019, 507 Chinese companies were shortlisted for the top 2500 global R&D investments recognized by international organizations. They are concentrated in modern high-tech fields such as drones, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and mobile communications.

　　In 2020, Chinese enterprises’ R&D expenditures reached RMB 186.738 billion, an increase of 10.4% over the previous year; the proportion of R&D expenditures in the country reached 76.6%, and their contribution to national growth reached 77.9%, an increase of 0.2 and 9.4 percentage points respectively over the previous year. The pulling effect is further enhanced.

Among them, the R&D expenditure of industrial enterprises above designated size was 1,527.13 billion yuan, an increase of 9.3% over the previous year; the investment intensity was 1.41%, an increase of 0.09 percentage points over the previous year.

　　What role do companies play in China's technological innovation process?

The "14th Five-Year Plan" outline has given the answer to the deployment of related fields: strengthen the position of the enterprise as the main body of innovation, promote the concentration of various innovative elements in the enterprise, and form a technological innovation with enterprise as the main body, market-oriented, and in-depth integration of industry, university, research and application. system.

It can be judged from this that the status of enterprises in the overall situation of China's innovation in the next five years will be even more important.

　　Tao Kuangchun, chairman of KPMG Asia Pacific and China, believes that some companies that are in the leading stage of the country, the world, or are close to the leading stage have relatively strong original innovation and positive innovation demands. With the support of government departments, they will take the lead in building industry-university-research cooperation. The platform can make greater breakthroughs in technological innovation.

　　In the past year, under the influence of the epidemic, Chinese companies' R&D funding has continued to increase, and official policy support is also indispensable.

　　With the further improvement of the R&D expenses deduction policy, in 2020, enterprises above designated size will enjoy R&D expenses plus deduction and exemption of 242.19 billion yuan, an increase of 29.4% over the previous year.

Relevant surveys show that companies' recognition of this policy is as high as 87.7%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points over the previous year.

　　In addition, "tax cuts" instead of "direct subsidies" to support innovation policies have also achieved good results. The enthusiasm of enterprises in research and development activities has continued to increase.

Relevant departments have clearly increased the R&D deduction ratio of manufacturing enterprises from 75% to 100%, which is expected to drive enterprises to further increase investment in technological innovation, improve technological capabilities and the level of the industrial chain supply chain.

　　In the future, how can China continue to expand the scale of funding while further optimizing the funding structure and improving the quality and efficiency of investment?

Zhang Qilong, a statistician from the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, believes that it is necessary to optimize government funding, and on the basis of ensuring growth, further focus on the most urgent major needs for economic and social development, focus on key areas and key industries, and improve budget management and allocations. Ways to give full play to the role of the "baton".

　　At the same time, it is necessary to give play to the main role of enterprises, encourage enterprises to further increase investment in original innovation and independent research, and strengthen industry-university-research cooperation through the establishment of innovation consortiums, and enhance the "main force" combat power.

Improve the diversified investment mechanism of the whole society, improve the sources of funds such as social donations, venture capital, and financial technology products, vigorously develop new research and development institutions, and create a "diversified" ecology.

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