Innovation nurtures new growth drivers for China's economy

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Amid the great challenges and uncertainties in the world today, China has put sci-tech innovation high on its agenda to boost competitiveness, growth drivers and sustainability for future development.

China will promote scientific and technological innovation, so as to upgrade industries, eliminate the bottlenecks in supply, and realize high-quality development through innovation, according to a government work report submitted Saturday to the national legislature for deliberation.

Since 2012, the country has highlighted the key role of innovation in national strategies, rolling out a raft of policies to build sci-tech infrastructure, implement major national sci-tech projects and further fine-tune the national system for innovation.

Ranging from space exploration to deep-sea research, innovation has breathed new life into the country's sci-tech development which, in turn, brings significant business value for the market and invigorates the economy.

Check out some data highlights of China's innovation achievements over the past decade.

-- China rose to 12th on the Global Innovation Index 2021, up from the 34th in 2012, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. The country remains the only middle-income economy to rank in the top 30.

-- China ranked first in international patent application volume in 2021 for the third consecutive year, as applicants from the country filed 69,540 applications last year.

-- Output of high-tech manufacturing accounted for 15.1 percent of value-added industrial output in 2020, up from 9.4 percent in 2012.

-- Spending on R&D amounted to about 2.79 trillion yuan in 2021, up from 1.03 trillion yuan in 2012.

-- China had installed a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations by the end of 2021, with the number of mobile terminals connected to the network exceeding 520 million.

-- The length of expressways open to traffic reached 161,000 km in 2020, ranking the first in the world.

-- The double-cropping rice developed by Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," and his team has achieved a yield of 1,586.86 kg per mu (about 667 square meters) in 2021, beating the project target of 1,500 kg per mu.

-- Pilots of China's digital fiat currency kicked off in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an and Chengdu in late 2019.

-- As of the end of 2019, China's total installed capacity of power generation using renewable energy resources reached 790 million kW, accounting for about 30 percent of the global total. 

(1 U.S. dollar equals 6.3288 yuan)