Accelerate the development of technology factor market and promote the innovation of science and technology in China

It is reported that according to the report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter referred to as "WIPO") on April 7, China surpassed the United States to become the country with the largest number of international patent applications under the framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of the organization in 2019.


According to the communiqu é of the WIPO, in 2019, China filed 58990 patent applications under the PCT framework of the organization, exceeding 57840 submitted by the United States, becoming the largest user of PCT. Gao Rui, director general of WIPO, said in a press release that in 1999, the number of patent applications received by the organization from China was 276, which soared to 58990 in 2019, a 200 fold increase in 20 years.


China’’s progress in international patents is related to China’’s R & D investment. In 2018, for example, China’’s R & D investment reached 1965.7 billion yuan, 138 times that of 1991. According to the exchange rate, China has become the second largest R & D investment country in the world, second only to the United States. At the same time, according to the full-time workload, the total number of R & D personnel in China is 4.19 million person years, 6.2 times of that in 1991. As early as 2013, the total number of R & D personnel in China exceeded that in the United States.


China’’s international patent growth is also related to the global rise of Chinese enterprises in the field of communication. Among them, Huawei ranked first in 4411 applications for the third consecutive year, while Guangdong opper Mobile Communication Co., Ltd. ranked fifth in the world with 1927 applications. These two companies alone account for more than 10% of China’’s total. Huawei’’s achievements come from huge investment. In 2018, its R & D cost reached 101.5 billion yuan, more than that of 25 provinces in China.


Industrial manufacturing is the basis of technological innovation. According to the data, except China and the United States, Japan (52660 pieces), Germany (19353 pieces) and South Korea (19085 pieces) are the top five users of PCT in 2019. In 2010, the added value of China’’s manufacturing industry surpassed that of the United States to become the first in the world, but it is basically the low-end manufacturing industry. In the process of catching up, Chinese enterprises begin to participate in global competition in some fields, and they must generate a large number of patents through R & D to gain more competitive advantages. The substantial growth of China’’s international patents shows that enterprises are catching up in various industries. In the future, we still need to move forward to the leading level.


The technological innovation of Chinese enterprises needs the support of national basic research. At present, the level of basic research restricts the research and development of Chinese enterprises, but China is increasing investment. In 2018, the basic research fund was 111.8 billion yuan, and significant breakthroughs have been made in Quantum Science, iron-based superconductivity, dark matter particle detection satellite, CIPS stem cells and other basic research fields. Chinese scientists have made rapid progress in the field of basic science, which is now second only to the United States. Therefore, the short board of basic research restricting the technological innovation of enterprises will soon be added.


However, China’’s R & D investment has structural deficiencies. Guangdong Province ranks first in R & D investment for many years in a row, and keeps away from the second place. This is due to the competitiveness of Guangdong enterprises, such as Huawei and opper are both located in Guangdong. In addition, although Guangdong’’s universities do not have an advantage in number, they are in the forefront of R & D capabilities. According to the data of the property rights organization, among the educational institutions, the University of California ranked first in 2019 with 470 published applications, and Tsinghua University ranked second with 265 applications, followed by Shenzhen University (247), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (230) and South China University of Technology (164). This means that two of China’’s top three universities are in Guangdong.


Guangdong Province, like Japan, South Korea and other countries, has a similar path, that is, in the fields of home appliances, electronics, automobiles, etc., it gradually accumulates from export-oriented OEM and low-end manufacturing, and then advances to high-end manufacturing. In this process, we will continue to invest in R & D to gain global competitiveness. This means that the manufacturing industry needs to participate in international competition, while increasing R & D investment, which takes time.


In the past, China has taken some detours in this process. The influx of social resources into real estate, finance and the Internet has made a certain impact on industrial manufacturing. A few years ago, China Re valued the real economy and technological innovation. At present, market resources begin to flow to the field of technological innovation.


For the first time, China has become the country with the largest number of patent applications filed under the PCT framework, indicating that China’’s investment and efforts are being rewarded. However, China still has a huge space to improve innovation efficiency. With huge investment, it still needs to remove some institutional barriers to improve the efficiency of resource use. If greater creativity can be released through reform, China will consolidate its first position and accelerate progress.


The opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on building a more perfect market-oriented allocation system and mechanism of factors, released on April 9, put forward to speed up the development of technology factor market. The specific measures include improving the property right system of post scientific and technological achievements, improving the allocation of scientific and technological innovation resources, cultivating and developing technology transfer institutions and technology managers, promoting the integration of technological elements and capital elements, and supporting international scientific and technological innovation cooperation. If these policies are effectively implemented, they will greatly promote China’’s science and technology innovation.