70 percent of China's enterprise revenue comes from existing, traditional products and services, 20 percent comes from improving those products and services, and just 10 percent is based on innovation, according to the results of a special item survey conducted by the National Statistics Bureau on October 22.

The National Statistics Bureau picked senior managers from different enterprises in 1,600 enterprises in 40 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Harbin and Hefei for their survey sample.

The results of the survey indicate that innovation is not yet a significant factor in revenue for enterprises.

The percentage revenue generated by innovation is different in different enterprises. Private enterprises profit the most from innovation, which accounts for an average of 13 percent of revenue. This percentage is higher than the national average.

In state-owned enterprises and enterprises in which the state has a significant holding, revenue from innovation is lower than the national average.

Income from innovation accounts for just 8.5 percent of revenue in foreign-funded enterprises as well as enterprises invested in by Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Senior managers who took the survey generally believe that income generated by innovation will increase in the future and they are prepared to be more devoted to innovation. Some 87 percent of enterprises plan to increase investment into human resources in the next three years; 73 percent will invest in better equipment and 15 percent plan to spend more on patent purchasing.

Innovation generates income in two ways. The first is by innovative, distinctive products. The other is from products or services resulting from a transferred management model or the creation of a completely new market.

The survey found that Shanghai is regarded as the optimal Chinese city in which to build an enterprise innovation center, and that New York is regarded as the most optimal foreign city.

By People's Daily Online