Source: Economic Daily
In 2021, how can technological innovation effectively enhance economic momentum? In the 2021 series of economic data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics and other ministries and commissions, technological innovation highlights are prominent.
R&D investment maintains high growth
“In 2021, scientific and technological innovation played an important role in preventing and controlling the epidemic, promoting high-quality development, building a new development pattern, and ensuring national security, achieving The '14th Five-Year Plan' has made a good start. The comprehensive ranking of national innovation capabilities has risen to 12th in the world." At the 2022 National Science and Technology Work Conference, Wang Zhigang, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, commented on the science and technology work in 2021.
In 2021, the research and experimental development expenditures of the whole society will increase by 14.2% over the previous year, and the growth rate will be 4 percentage points faster than the previous year; the ratio of R&D expenditures to GDP will reach 2.44%, an increase from the previous year 0.03 percentage points. Among them, basic research funding increased by 15.6% over the previous year, accounting for 6.09% of R&D expenditures, an increase of 0.08 percentage points over the previous year.
"my country's R&D investment will continue to maintain rapid growth." Zhao Gang believes that the R&D investment intensity of 2.44% shows that the rapid growth of R&D investment is closely related to the rapid growth of GDP. The GDP growth rate in 2021 will reach 8.1%, which illustrates the potential and vitality of our country's economy. "Only by taking innovation as the first driving force for economic development and continuing to insist on high investment in scientific and technological innovation can we enhance the competitiveness of the Chinese economy."
Continuous investment has cultivated the world’s largest scientific and technological talents and also brought sustained scientific research output. At present, the full-time equivalent of my country's research and experimental development personnel exceeds 5 million person-years. At the end of 2021, the number of valid invention patents in my country was 3.597 million, and the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people reached 7.5, an increase of 1.2 from the previous year.
Innovation leads the development of high-tech industries
Technology Innovation leads the rapid development of high-tech industries, allowing economic development to have a higher quality.
In 2021, the added value of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, aerospace vehicle and equipment manufacturing industry, electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry, and computer and office equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 24.7%, 17%, and 17% respectively compared with the previous year. The added value of the information transmission, software and information technology services industry increased by 17.2%. Ma Tao, deputy dean of the School of Economics and Management at Harbin Institute of Technology, said that the economic data in 2021 reflect the improvement in the international competitiveness of my country’s high-tech industries against the trend. “From the perspective of the export destinations of the above categories, in addition to developing economies, the main developed economies The import of related products from China has also increased significantly. The global competitive advantage of China's high-tech industry has not been weakened, but has developed, grown, and enhanced."
The industrial multiplier effect of digital technology is indispensable. "Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the integration of digital economy and manufacturing has become large-scale and has overflows, and the multiplier effect of digital technology on manufacturing has begun to exert force." Ma Tao believes that benefiting from the increase in digital demand scenarios in my country, the digital industry High-quality evolution, digital economy R&D investment is higher than the industry average R&D investment, accelerating the reshaping of the manufacturing industrial system by digital economic forms such as the industrial Internet and consumer Internet.
Innovation drives economic upgrading, and the new development pattern brings huge investment motivation and entrepreneurial vitality. In 2021, my country's high-tech industry investment increased by 17.1% compared with the previous year. Enterprise innovation capabilities have been further strengthened, with the number of high-tech enterprises increasing by 18.7% year-on-year.
"The rapid growth of investment in high-tech industries is related to my country's policy orientation and the deepening of corporate understanding." Zhao Gang believes that in recent years, the central government has introduced a series of policies to strongly support the development of hard science and technology and encourage more companies and social capital to invest in scientific research and development and technological transformation; international competition has intensified under the pressure of economic downturn, and more companies have realized that only by increasing investment in research and development and mastering core competitiveness can they remain invincible in the market.
Reforms in key areas are advancing steadily
In the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan”, my country’s science and technology continues to deepen reforms in key areas and build talent teams.
Facing the future, how should the next step of scientific and technological reform improve the momentum of innovation?
"It is necessary to form and stimulate a market system for non-manufacturing market entities to participate in manufacturing innovation investment." Ma Tao said that although the R&D investment and profit levels of some designated manufacturing industries reached new highs in recent years last year, my country's It is also true that the overall profit rate of the manufacturing industry is lower than that of sectors such as the new economy and financial economy. There are still great difficulties in relying entirely on the manufacturing industry itself to form long-term sustainable innovation investment that can meet the needs of international competition. In addition to the national market framework for investment in basic applied research, industry sectors with high innovation investment potential, such as the digital economy, financial economy, and traditional competitive industries, should become the main entities that allocate resources to manufacturing innovation and upgrading.