BEIJING, May 29 -- China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) directly administered by the central government increased their spending on basic research in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), as they viewed such investment as a key driver to sharpen their core competitiveness, a meeting held by the country's state-asset regulator said on Friday.

Central SOEs raised their basic research spending from 56.5 billion yuan (about 8.29 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021 to 102.4 billion yuan in 2025, with its share in total research and development (R&D) investment climbing from 6 percent to 9.4 percent, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

In this period, 20 central SOEs partnered with national laboratories to carry out basic and frontier research tasks, and jointly established a number of collaborative R&D institutions in areas such as new power systems, artificial intelligence and quantum communication.

The commission has set clear targets. By 2030, central SOEs should have a well-defined basic research system that integrates industry, academia and research. By 2035, this system should be more comprehensive and their original innovation capabilities should be significantly improved.