Since the CPC Central Committee and State Council made the decision to construct an innovation-oriented country, the whole of society has shown great enthusiasm. Inspired by this objective, Chinese people have made a variety of independent innovations.
In June 2006, to guide enterprises to truly become the mainstay of technological innovation, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), and the National Union identified the first batch of 103 pilot enterprises; including 15 large state-owned key enterprises, 77 private technology enterprises, and 11 scientific research and application institutions. Over the past year, these pilot enterprises have taken on innovation as their fundamental strategy and further increased investment in science and technology, so as to improve their core competitiveness. Half of these enterprises have invested more than 6 percent of their sales income on sci-tech research and development.
In June 2007, under the coordination of departments including the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance, dozens of well-known enterprises, universities and research institutes jointly formed four strategic alliances focusing on steel recycling process technology; a new generation of coal chemical industrial technology; coal utilization and application technology; and agricultural equipment industrial technology. The four alliances aim to build "aircraft carriers" for technology innovation in steel, coal, chemicals and agricultural equipment industries.
Undoubtedly, building an innovative country requires a huge amount of capital. In recent years, the country's departments dealing with the national economy have helped enterprises increase investment in research and development, so as to enhance their capacity for independent innovation. In March 2006, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Development Bank signed an agreement to establish 50 billion yuan loans to support enterprises in increasing investment in science and technology, and to enhance their capacity for independent innovation.
Some companies with foresight have increased investment in science and technology to improve their capacity for technological innovation. In June this year, China's largest nickel and cobalt metal production enterprise, the Jinchuan Group, held a "technology conference" in the Hexi Corridor. The Jinchuan Group listed nearly 70 technical difficulties demanding research; and invited colleges and research institutes to help overcome these technical difficulties.
The increasing investment in R & D has provided endless financial support for independent innovation. In 2006, China's investment in R&D amounted to 300 billion yuan -an annual growth of more than 22% over the previous year and a record high.
The strategic decision to build an innovation-oriented country inspired a vast number of scientific research personnel. In the field of basic research, researchers consider "understanding natural phenomena; revealing natural principles; acquiring new knowledge; and developing new methods" as their major goals, and significantly enhanced China's position in the international academic community by successfully making great achievements in original research. These achievements are in the following areas: nonlinear optical crystals, quantum information and communications, nano-materials and nano-structures, molecular material engineering, protein structure and function, and neuroscience. In many important areas of research, Chinese scientists occupy an increasingly important position.
In high-tech fields, China has been taking the forefront of the world's technology innovation and development stage. For instance, China successfully developed Dawning 4000A high performance computers, participated in the international human genome project, and bred Super Rice. In the fields of information, biology, new materials, Chinese research fellows have made breakthroughs and mastered core technology. This has significantly enhanced the capacity for independent innovation in the high-tech areas, and led to another round of innovation and development in related areas.
On August 2, Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation announced that the performance of a server based on Intel four-core platform, the world first of its kind developed by Inspur (Langchao Group), one of China's top 100 electronic information producers, has broken the record for dual-core platforms held by the HP minicomputer for nearly seven months. This is also the fourth time since 2004 that the Inspur server has broken the world record. The Langchao Group successfully broke the technological monopoly of foreign manufacturers; reduced China's informationalization costs; and safeguarded national information security.
Moreover, the rise of a group of China's scientific and technological enterprises, Huawei, ZTE, Vimicro, Unitedgene, and Sanygroup, have also attracted attention worldwide.
A patent index is an important reference which reflects a nation's capacity for independent innovation. According to statistics, the State Intellectual Property Office received 210,500 patent applications in 2006-an increase of 21.4% over the previous year's 173,300. Of those received, 122,300 were domestic invention patent applications, up 30.8% over the previous year's 93,500. Domestic applications account for 58% of total applications for inventions. In particular, China issued 25,100 domestic invention patent licenses in 2006, accounting for 43.4% of the total.
Experts state that the number of both China's invention patent applications and authorization showed substantial growth last year. This demonstrates that China is steadily improving its innovative capabilities and level of technological development. The influence of the strategy for independent innovation is also growing.
By People's Daily Online
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article