China is steadily pushing forward supply-side reform to improve economic quality, and growing innovation and new industries are adding more scientific and technological ingredients to China’s economy.
According to the national innovation index report 2015 released by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, China ranked 18 among 40 countries, with a closing gap toward innovative nations.
Encouraged by the strategy of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, the number of China’s industrial patent applications ranked first in the world, accounting for 34.62 percent of the total. In 2015, social R&D input reached around 1.4 trillion yuan ($211 billion), accounting for 2.1 percent of China’s GDP. As the world’s second-largest economy, China is showing its worldwide significance in innovation-driven development.
Innovation is the first driver for development, the central government pointed out in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). The development concept applies both to China and the world. At the upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou in September, China will also make innovative growth a key issue, calling for participating countries to “innovate growth patterns to unleash potential”.
Chinese enterprises are everywhere, including cloud computing, gene mapping, smart manufacturing, smart cities, big data analysis, and 5G, making the nation a key partner in global partnerships in innovation.
Statistics from KPMG showed that more than 1,300 foreign R&D and innovation centers are located in China. Chinese enterprises have invested over $1.5 billion in nations along the “one belt and one road”, and constructed around 4,000 projects with new contracts of over $92 billion.
Since the international financial crisis of 2008, China as the main powerhouse has maintained 30 percent contribution to the world economy. With fruitful supply-side reform and increasing credit of science and technology in economic growth, China’s GDP increased 6.7 percent in the first half of this year, with a 5.2 percent drop in energy consumption per unit of GDP. Meanwhile, strategic new industries have grown by 11.8 percent in the second quarter.
By 2020, China’s spending on scientific research will account for 2.5 percent of its GDP, a comparable level to the United States, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan. By then, 60 percent of GDP growth will come from innovation, providing constant power for China’s economic growth and global economic recovery.
