The investment intensity of R&D funds in China has reached a new high.

How to read the meaning behind 2.12%-
China’s R&D investment intensity has reached a new high.

The National Bureau of Statistics released the latest data on the 13th. According to the preliminary calculation results of the annual report of comprehensive statistics of science and technology, the total investment in R&D in China in 2017 was 1.75 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.6% over the previous year, and the growth rate was 1 percentage point higher than that of the previous year. The investment intensity of R&D funds was 2.12%, an increase of 0.01 percentage points over the previous year.

2.12%, in addition to indicating that China’s R&D investment intensity has reached a new high, what does it mean? How to read 2.12%?

I. What does 2.12% mean?

What is "R&D expenditure intensity"? It is the ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP, which means that the denominator of this indicator is GDP.

"In 2017, the investment intensity of R&D funds in China reached a new height of 2.12%. This is a very good indicator. It is achieved on the basis of GDP growth of 6.9%. The high growth achieved under the premise of high denominator growth shows that China’s construction of an innovative country is accelerating. " Zhang Yansheng, a researcher at the Academic Committee of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in an interview with this reporter.

2.12%, what does it mean?

Horizontally, the investment intensity of R&D funds in China has exceeded 2% for four consecutive years, although it is still far from the average level of 2.40% in OECD countries, but it has exceeded the average level of 2.08% in 15 EU countries.

Vertically, in the past decade or so, the intensity of R&D investment in China has not been promoted all the way, reaching 1.75% in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and failing to complete the target task of 2%; The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" reached 2.06%, and the target task of 2.2% was not completed; Since 2016, this indicator has shown a significant acceleration in growth.

Correspondingly, Shenwei Supercomputing, quantum communication, Beidou navigation … landmark scientific and technological innovations are constantly emerging. "The level of scientific and technological innovation in China has accelerated to the first phalanx in the world." Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang pointed out. In 2017, the ranking of China’s national innovation capability has risen from the 20th in 2012 to the 17th. The total number of international scientific papers in China increased by 70% compared with 2012, ranking second in the world. From 2013 to 2017, China’s innovation-driven development strategy was further promoted, and the labor productivity of all employees increased by 6.8% annually. The emerging kinetic energy represented by new industries, new formats and new models thrived.

"China’s innovative atmosphere has far exceeded Needham’s expectations." Mei Jianjun, director of the Needham Institute in the UK, said.

Second, the three sectors behind 2.12%

"The intensity of R&D investment in the whole country is 2.12%, which is a very high level, exceeding the average level of the 15 EU countries, but the contradiction of insufficient imbalance is very prominent." Zhang Yansheng has a clear national R&D intensity map in his mind. From this map, we can see the good side: the eastern developed areas have entered the innovation-driven stage, but the exposed shortcomings are also very obvious.

Taking the R&D intensity of all provinces (cities, autonomous regions) in China as an indicator, Zhang Yansheng divides the country into three sectors: the first is the regions with R&D intensity above 2.2%, including the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Shandong, all of which are above 2.2% except Hebei, and have taken the lead in entering the innovation-driven stage, exceeding the OECD average of 2.4% except Shandong; The second sector is 14 provinces (autonomous regions) with R&D investment intensity of 1% to 2%, which is in the early, middle and late stages of investment-driven; The third sector is 11 provinces (autonomous regions) with R&D intensity below 1%, which are still in the stage of being driven by resources and factors.

Zhang Yansheng believes that China’s R&D investment in the first sector exceeds the average level of rich countries’ clubs and developed countries. As long as R&D growth lasts for ten to twenty years, it will achieve dynamic change and innovation-driven change, reaching the forefront of the world’s scientific and technological innovation countries; The second sector is accelerating the completion of the stage from the middle and late investment-driven to the preparation for innovation-driven, and the R&D intensity is rising rapidly; The third sector is the biggest challenge.

"From high-speed growth to high-quality development, it is still at a turning point, and the contradiction of insufficient imbalance is exposed. The biggest shortcoming is kinetic energy change, which is driven by productivity improvement and wisdom. Innovation drives the development of basic research and applied basic research, and it must persist in entering the middle and high end of the global value chain for a long time. " Zhang Yansheng said.

3. 2.12% to 2.5%, which is not only a quantitative increase.

To achieve the goal of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" of R&D investment intensity, that is, to reach 2.5% in 2020, it still faces great challenges. Not only the increase in numbers, but also the change in structure.

In 2017, China’s basic research funding was 92 billion yuan, an increase of 11.8% over the previous year; Basic research accounted for 5.3% of R&D funds, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous year; According to the main body of R&D activities, the R&D expenditure of enterprises in 2017 was 1,373.3 billion yuan, an increase of 13.1% over the previous year, achieving double-digit growth for two consecutive years. The proportion of R&D investment, researchers and invention patents of enterprises in the whole society exceeds 70%.

In the fields of intelligent terminals, drones, e-commerce, cloud computing, internet finance, artificial intelligence, etc., a number of innovative enterprises with global influence have emerged in China. Among the 2,500 companies with the highest R&D investment in the world, there are 376 in China, ranking third in the world; In 2017, the number of "unicorn" enterprises in China was second only to the United States, ranking second in the world; ZTE and Huawei rank first and second among the companies with the largest number of PCT patent applications in the world.

"China’s R&D investment in the construction of an innovative country is undergoing new changes in intensity, scale and structure. However, China still needs to continue to fill shortcomings and strong and weak items in forward-looking basic research, subversive technological innovation, and transfer and transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements. " Guan Xiaojing, senior statistician of the Department of Social Sciences and Literature of the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out.

Basic research is an experimental or theoretical research that reveals the essence and movement law of objective things and obtains new development and new theories.

In 2017, the number of domestic invention patent applications and authorizations that can best measure core technological capabilities and innovation capabilities accounted for less than 40% and 20% of all patents; At present, there are about 1,000 researchers per million people, far below the level of about 4,000 in high-income countries.

"At present, China’s scientific research is mainly based on imitation and tracking, with few original achievements, relatively weak basic research, and high-level talents are still scarce." Ning Ji Zhe, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, stressed that to change this unfavorable situation, we must put innovation at the core of the overall development of the country, firmly implement the innovation-driven development strategy, and constantly promote all-round innovation. (Reporter zhang yi)