Currently, our country’s economy is undergoing transformations in its development approach, optimization of economic structures, and the shifting of growth drivers. At this critical period, scientific and technological innovation is particularly important, as it is indispensable for enhancing production efficiency, strengthening supply capacity, and improving potential growth rates. Throughout this year’s Two Sessions, how scientific and technological innovation can drive industrial development and how to strengthen the position of enterprises as the main body of innovation have become hot topics.
To promote the construction of a modern industrial system, we must devote ourselves to the original innovation of science and technology. When facing numerous issues in the industrial chain, the root cause often lies in the inadequacy of “bottleneck” technologies, particularly the front-end capabilities of scientific and technological innovation. The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized that scientific and technological innovation should lead the construction of the modern industrial system by using it to drive industry innovation, and especially by fostering new industries, new models, and new dynamics through disruptive and cutting-edge technologies, nurturing a new quality of productivity.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, the annual research and development (R&D) expenditure reached 3,327.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%, accounting for 2.64% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); among which, the funding for basic research was 221.2 billion yuan, a 9.3% increase from last year, and made up 6.65% of the total R&D expenditure. During this period, the National Natural Science Foundation provided funding for 52,500 projects. Even as R&D and basic research funding have increased year by year, the construction of China’s modern industrial system still faces issues such as a homogeneous industrial structure and insufficient technological innovation capabilities. Comprehensive measures need to be taken to develop new industries, models, and dynamics with disruptive and cutting-edge technologies, thereby developing new productivity forces.
National People’s Congress representative and Distinguished Professor Huang Yongping from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University believes that the core of new quality productivity lies in the integration of scientific and technological innovation into every development link. During this year’s Two Sessions, Huang Yongping made suggestions regarding basic research and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. In his research, he found that many enterprises have difficulty directly applying research results from laboratories and are reluctant to invest funds in this transformation. Therefore, he suggested that the government should increase the support for transfer and transformation policies, increase funding, drive social capital investment through government-led funds, and cultivate more professional talents for the transfer and transformation of scientific research results, to promote the social application of laboratory research findings.
National Committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Deng Zhonghan, emphasized that scientific and technological innovation is key to unleashing new quality productivity, especially the need to intensify original and disruptive scientific and technological innovations to achieve self-reliance in technology. Deng Zhonghan pointed out that efforts should be made in originality and disruptive fundamental technological innovations, such as the architecture and innovation capabilities of artificial intelligence chips that can significantly improve computing efficiency, thus supporting artificial intelligence in bringing disruptive innovation to different industries, while cultivating new patterns, new business forms, and new dynamics. Looking to the future, it is necessary to build national-level innovation platforms, develop standardized ecosystems, and provide precise support for innovative enterprises and talents in key technological fields such as artificial intelligence chips, to offer more support for hard technology companies to tackle technical challenges.
At the press conference held during the second session of the National People’s Congress, a spokesperson pointed out that the advancement of the internet and computer technology has spawned numerous cross-disciplinary innovations. These include integrated innovation, application innovation, and convergence innovation, which together have propelled the deepening of the new technological revolution and industrial transformation. China advocates that open cooperation is the correct path for technological development and exploring cutting-edge technologies, and that technological competition should abide by the natural laws of technological development and principles of the market economy.
The policies of “decoupling” and “high walls in small yards” at home and abroad will only hinder the progress of global technology, harm the development of global industries, and lead to a widening development gap. As long as we adhere to self-reliance, there are no insurmountable obstacles. It’s important to strengthen creativity, application, and the protection of technological intellectual property rights. Pursuing a high level of technological self-sufficiency does not mean reinventing the wheel, but should be devoted to promoting global technological innovation collaboration, actively integrating into the innovation network, advancing basic research, and promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, thereby fostering new economic development momentum and enhancing human well-being.
The next step will be to delve into ethical, moral, and security issues in fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and to optimize science and technology regulations. Enhancing the leading role of enterprises in technological innovation has also been put on the agenda. As enterprises transition from “technological innovators” to “science and technology innovators,” they face higher requirements for science and technology activities. Although corporate R&D investment has increased year by year, there is still a need for reinforcement in the field of basic research.
According to the “China R&D Expenditure Report (2022),” industrial enterprise R&D funds in China are mainly used internally, with little external expenditure, and there is a significant difference between industries. In terms of basic research, the proportion of funds executed by enterprises is far behind international standards. For example, Chinese enterprises only account for 6.52% of basic research funding, compared to 32.14% in the United States and 47.07% in Japan, the gap is significant. “Many enterprises have not yet realized the importance of basic research,” commented one of the authors of the report, a university professor, suggesting that enterprises can learn from existing advanced technologies before reaching the leading stages; but after entering “unchartered territories,” they must explore on their own.
At this year’s National Two Sessions, a certain organization plans to submit a proposal emphasizing the strengthening of the leading role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, which is an important foundation for improving the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and industrialization levels, and achieving a high level of technological self-reliance. The proposal suggests strengthening enterprises’ leading rights in the innovation chain, creating a good industrial innovation ecosystem, enhancing the international competitiveness of strategic emerging industries, and strengthening international scientific and technological cooperation to promote the global allocation and flow of innovation resources.
To foster innovation and technological development, it is encouraged for enterprises to play a leading role, cooperating hand in hand with research institutions to accurately identify core issues. Enterprises and research institutes jointly plan the technology development roadmap, advance the industrialization process of technology, and set up joint funds to overcome the “valley of death” faced in the process of translating innovation outcomes.
Moreover, strengthening the leading position of enterprises in the allocation of innovation resources is crucial, making full use of their core role in determining technological direction, research and development investment, research organization modes, and technology results transformation. Such practices will encourage more innovation resources to converge towards enterprises.
Enterprises should participate more in the government’s scientific research funds and project establishments. Increased participation will lead to the strengthening of enterprise activities in fields such as basic research and technological innovation. Enterprises should cooperate with higher education institutions and scientific research institutions, actively innovate industry-academia-research cooperation models, support science and technology leading enterprises as well as industry pioneers in the formation of innovative consortia, guiding to promote the deep integration of production, study, and research, and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces.
