This year marks the final year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), emphasizing the development of new quality productive forces.
Introduced in 2023, this concept refers to advanced productivity free from traditional economic growth modes, focusing on high-tech, high efficiency, and high quality sectors like artificial intelligence, big data, and new materials.
Rising R&D Fuels Innovation 🚀
Last year, China solidified its position as a global innovation leader, climbing to 11th place on the Global Innovation Index— one of the fastest rises among major economies in the past decade.
This achievement comes amid sustained investments in research and development (R&D), with R&D expenditure reaching 2.68% of GDP in 2024—up 0.1 percentage points from the previous year. Basic research funding surged by 10.5%, now accounting for 6.91% of total R&D spending, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Total R&D spending in China surpassed 3.6 trillion yuan (approximately $500 billion) last year, marking an 8.3% increase compared to the previous year, according to the NBS.
NBS statistician Zhang Qilong noted that China's favorable policies, a diversified investment environment, and stronger business involvement have significantly contributed to the consistent growth in R&D spending.
At 2.68%, China's R&D intensity ranks 12th among major countries, surpassing the European Union's average of 2.11% and nearing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's figure of 2.73%.
New and Old Industries Embrace Tech 🛠️
China's industrial landscape is transforming as emerging sectors rapidly expand. According to Kang Yi, commissioner of the NBS, the value-added output in high-tech manufacturing above designated size grew by 8.9% year-on-year in 2024.
Notably, aerospace equipment and electronic communication device manufacturing sectors posted double-digit growth, while smart consumer equipment manufacturing surged by 10.9%, driven by rising demand for intelligent car-mounted devices (up 25.1%) and unmanned aerial vehicles (up 53.5%).
\"New market demands are accelerating the supply of high-quality products, reshaping China's industrial pillars,\" Kang emphasized.
Legacy industries also saw robust modernization efforts in 2024. Technical transformation investments in manufacturing rose by 8%, outpacing overall investment growth. Meanwhile, the digital economy continued its rapid ascent. The value-added output in digital product manufacturing exceeded industrial averages, and the information transmission, software, and IT service sector expanded by 10.9%.
Digital consumption innovations further spurred online retail sales of physical goods, which climbed by 6.5%. Infrastructure for next-gen connectivity advanced steadily. By November 2024, China had deployed 4.19 million 5G base stations. It also launched its first 400G all-optical interprovincial backbone network under the \"East Data West Computing\" project, establishing ultra-high-speed computing channels.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
