Chinese companies ramp up basic R&D spending as US tech decoupling looms: report
- But outlays as a share of economic output still lag US, Japan and South Korea, statistics bureau says
- Government urged to direct more fiscal support towards critical core technologies
Outlays in the area rose by 52 per cent in 2019, more than triple the rate recorded for the previous two years, according to an annual report released on Thursday jointly by the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Finance Ministry.
For the first time, basic research – crucial for long-term self-reliance in critical core technologies – accounted for over 6 per cent of China’s total R&D expenditure, the bureau said.
But even though R&D as a share of its total economic output reached a record high of 2.23 per cent, the level remains behind that of the United States, Japan, South Korea and advanced European countries, according to the bureau.
“The share of basic research expenditure is still far behind developed countries’ average of 15 per cent, and often the R&D outputs are abundant in quantity but lack quality,” the bureau’s senior statistician, Deng Yongxu, said.
Deng said the country’s total R&D expenditure by government institutes, universities and companies had grown by double-digits for four consecutive years, with an increase of 12.5 per cent to 2.2 trillion yuan (US$319 billion) last year. The spending was the second-highest in the world – a position China has held since 2013 – and further closed the gap with the US.