During the first half of 2022, China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) increased investment in research and development (R&D) to boost innovation-driven growth, official data showed on Friday.

Central SOEs' total expenditure on R&D amounted to around 378.62 billion yuan (about $56.1 billion) during the first half of the year, up 19.7 percent over the same period last year, said the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

The R&D input of central SOEs maintained double-digit growth during the first six months, and the R&D investment intensity of those companies increased by a 0.12 percentage point year on year, according to the SASAC.

SASAC data also showed that the combined revenue of China's central SOEs stood at 19.2 trillion yuan in the January-June period, up 12 percent year on year. Moreover, their net profits came in at 1.09 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent from a year earlier.

(Cover via CFP)