More Powerful Development Engine – Overview for China to Implement Innovation-driven Development Strategy

    The 200th times launching of the Long March rocket series, over 1,000 kg yield per mu of super grain developed by Yuan Longping, and application quantities of international patents of China jumping to third place in the world… The innovation-driven development strategy has been obtaining exciting achievements.
　　Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee led by General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken scientific & technological innovation as the new engine for development, in order to vigorously promote the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. New discoveries and new inventions have been successively emerging and transformation of new technologies and new achievements has been accelerated, offering powerful motion to economic transformation and upgrade.

Joint Force of Upper and Lower Levels to Drive Scientific & Technological Innovation Upsurges
　　Recent years, new changes have taken shape in the scientific & technological development prospect in both China and abroad: in the international level, new generation of scientific & technological revolution and industrial reform is rising, making the innovation strategy competition increasingly significant in the competition of comprehensive national strength; from national level, the economic development method of China that is driven by cost advantages is now having limited potential and it is difficult to continue the development strategy by inputting large number of resources and by consuming the environment.
　　Report delivered at the 18th Party Congress has made important strategic decisions including the “implementation of innovation-driven development strategy”, and it is explicitly put forward that: scientific & technological innovation is the strategic support for improving social productivity and comprehensive national strength and it must be the core of development outline of the country. Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee has held several conferences to study the top-level design for implementation of innovation-driven development strategy, and has put forward new policies and measures to accelerate the development of scientific & technological service industry, strengthen the intellectual property right protection and to accelerate the transformation of scientific & technological achievements.
　　Innovation wave upsurges across the country: Beijing has launched the Technical Innovation Action Plan (2014-2017) to implement new generation of mobile communication technologies, digital manufacturing technologies, biomedical, rail transport and other major scientific & technological special projects and to accelerate the construction of national scientific & technological center; as the first city-based national independent innovation pilot zone in China, Shenzhen has put emphases on positive exploration in scientific & technological financial revolution, construction of new scientific & technological agencies, construction of new mechanism for Shenzhen-Hong Kong economic, scientific and technological cooperation and other aspects to spare no efforts in building a comprehensive innovation ecosystem. Till the end of this year, number of national level high-tech enterprises is expected to exceed 5,000…
　　Scientific & technological input is the scale to measure the strength of innovation. According to the Statistics Bulletin for National Scientific & Technological Funds Input in 2013, the funds invested by the country in research and test development (R&D) in 2013 is RMB 1184.66 billion with the year-on-year increase of 15%, and fund investment strength is 2.08%, 0.1% higher than last year, which hit a new record.

Basic Researches Serve as Foundation and Achievement Transformation is Obviously Accelerated
　　Basic researches are the foundation for scientific & technological researches and development. As the main territory for basic researches in China, scientific & technological institutes, colleges and universities are laying foundations for technical R&D so as to follow the international scientific & technological cutting edge and to satisfy the major needs of the country.
　　The Chinese Academy of Sciences has put forward the CAS “Leading Action Plan” and Outline for Comprehensive Deepened Reform, in which the affiliated institutes of CAS are re-positioned and reformed according to their categories, national major tasks i.e. the “Thirteenth Five-year Plan”, strategic leading scientific & technological projects, etc. are vigorously implemented, and significant progresses are made in sectors covering high-temperature superconductivity, neutrino detection, life sciences and other aspects. According to the latest Nature Index issued by Nature Publishing Group, contributions of the CAS to global scientific & technological innovations are obviously promoted, and high-quality scientific papers published in 2013 won the total score of 1,209.46, ranking first in global scientific research agencies.
　　The combined research team constituted by Tsinghua University and other agencies first observed Anomalous Quantum Hall Effect in tests and is expected to solve the bottleneck problems in heating of computers and the Moore’s Law, which is honored by the peers as “Nobel-level great discovery”; Pan Jianwei team of the USTC has cooperated with domestic counterparts to extend the safe distance of remote quantum key distribution system that is able to protect against attackers to 200 km, creating a new global record; Zhejiang University has developed a solid material known as “full carbon aerogel” whose density is only 0.16 mg/cm3, 1/6 of that of the air, becoming the “lightest material” of the world.
　　In addition to new discoveries and contribution of new knowledge, the colleges and universities has positively cooperated with local governments and enterprise to accelerate the transformation of scientific & technological achievements. The National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, based on the HBV receptor discovered by Li Wenhui Lab, has cooperated with Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission to promote the new medicine development for HBV patients and carriers and such new medicine is expected to enter clinical tests within 3-5 years; Tianhe-2 super computer developed by National University of Defense Technology, after formal operation in the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou in last November to serve domestic and foreign users, has played significant role in gene analysis and sequencing, large airplane and high-speed train design, large equipment research & manufacturing and other aspects; the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Managing Committee of Hefei High-tech Zone and Anhui Goocoo Investment Group has jointly constructed Hefei Robot Industrial Park and created the incubation platform for robot industry; Zhao Jiuran maize breeding team of Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences has cooperated with 5 domestic seed enterprises to establish a union for new maize research & development and 10 million mu of the new variety "Jingke 968" has been nationally promoted in only two years.

Strength of Technical Innovation is Increasing and Industrial Competitiveness is Growing
　　To make enterprise the subject of technical innovation and to create new economic growth point and power source are top priorities for implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. Under the facilitation of relevant national policies, many enterprises have successively enlarged their investments in technical transformation and product innovation, promoting the industrial chain to stride forward towards high end.
　　Technical transformation can rejuvenate the traditional industries. In the first half of this year, the industrial investment of China is RMB 8,700 billion, in which the investment in technical transformation is RMB 3,500 billion with the growth rate of 18%, 3.8% higher than that in industrial investment. Through technical transformation, independent R&D capacity of leading enterprises in automobile industry is obviously strengthened and the market share of independent brands is continuously increasing; localization rate of high-quality special steel in steel industry is obviously raised; for textile industry, a series of new breakthroughs has been obtained in industrial key generic technologies such as new materials, enabling continuous upgrading and updating of products.
　　Technical innovations also enable domestic brands to “retake their grounds”. According to the “2014 TOP100 High Performance Computer in China” issued by the National Annual Conference on High Performance Computing, domestic brands such as Dawning, Inspur, Lenovo, etc. take up 85 of them, and the “ruling” situation of foreign products has gone; in the fiercely competitive smart phone market, increasing number of consumers choose to buy Huaiwei, ZTE, Lenovo, MIUI and other home brands while foreign brands i.e. Nokia, Motorala and other brands are fading.
　　Technical innovation can push more domestic brands to the world. Recent years, LED HD display products independently developed by Leyard Optoelectronic Co., Ltd. have achieved unusually brilliant results in international high-end markets including NASDAQ Stock Market, Parliament of Germany, Sony Corporation Japan Headquarter, etc.; according to latest data, export contract volume of China CNR Corporation Limited and CSR Corporation Limited in first half of this year totals USD 4.5 billion and high-speed rail has become a “new card” for China to go abroad; lately, the Beidou satellite navigation standard system has been recognized by international organizations, meaning that the satellite navigation system of China has become the third global satellite navigation system following the global positioning system (GPS) and the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) and will play a significant role in international maritime sectors.
　　According to latest data of WIPO, application quantities of international patents of China submitted via Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2013 has exceed 20,000 for the first time, surpassing Germany to jump to the third place in the world. The performance of some enterprises is particularly eye-catching: ZTE Corporation is ranking second in global applicants with 2,309 international patent applications while Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. is ranking third with 2,094 applications. Industrial experts have pointed out that rapid growth of China in PCT international patent application volume reflects the great increase in independent innovation capability of China in recent years and more domestic enterprises are moving towards the international market.
“In this new round of global growth, only the reformers and innovators will emerge stronger and win.” With the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, scientific & technological innovation, as a new engine for development, will surely give birth to more powerful motive sources to pull China to cleave through the waves and realize stable development.