China to increase R&D spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2020

BEIJING - China plans to increase spending on research and development to 2.5% of its gross domestic product by 2020 in a bid to foster innovation crucial for growth, a Central Government blueprint shows. 

The State Council, China’s cabinet, said its latest 13th Five-Year Plan for R&D aims to raise the country’s research capacity and help it secure a place among the top 15 innovative countries in the world by 2020. China is now ranked 18th in a global innovation ranking developed by the state-backed Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development in 2011.

The R&D blueprint also focusses on new ways to fund innovation via the equity market, an issue which has been rarely discussed in the past because most research projects are funded by the Government, Xu Liang, an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, told state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Amid the current economic slowdown, authorities have pushed for moves to foster innovation, calling it a new growth engine to prevent China from heading into a hard landing. High-tech services contributed 15% of China’s GDP in 2015, the State Council said, and it expects this to rise to almost one-fifth by 2020. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).