This aerial photo shows the central business district of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on March 19, 2019. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Shenzhen is intensifying efforts to further enhance its innovation capability by increasing investment in research and development.
Total research-and-development spending in the city reached 168.22 billion yuan ($23.58 billion) last year, growing 11.3 percent year-on-year, according to data from Shenzhen’s Statistics Bureau, released on Wednesday.
R&D intensity, or the ratio of R&D expenditures to gross domestic product, which is considered as an important indicator of a city’s level of innovation, in Shenzhen rose 0.03 percentage point to 5.49 percent in 2021, ranking second nationwide behind Beijing, which was 6.53 percent
The amount accounted for 6 percent of the nation’s total R&D expenditures and ranked third among major Chinese cities, following Beijing and Shanghai.
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It was the seventh consecutive year that Shenzhen’s R&D spending saw double-digit growth, an official from the bureau said, adding that the average annual growth between 2015 and 2021 was 14.9 percent.
R&D intensity, or the ratio of R&D expenditures to gross domestic product, which is considered as an important indicator of a city’s level of innovation, in Shenzhen rose 0.03 percentage point to 5.49 percent in 2021, ranking second nationwide behind Beijing, which was 6.53 percent.
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Specifically, Shenzhen is working hard to strengthen its capacity in basic research, with expenditures in the field growing 67.4 percent last year compared with a year earlier to 12.20 billion yuan. The majority of the spending came from enterprises, which invested 7.98 billion yuan in basic research in 2021, surging 110.8 percent year-on-year.
sally@chinadailyhk.com