With the massive increase in government spending on science and technology innovation, China has significantly improved its sci-tech strength and innovation competency over the past decade, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

China's government expenditure on sci-tech innovation exceeded 1.07 trillion yuan (about $150.5 billion) in 2021, up 92.2 percent over 2012, maintaining an over-4-percent ratio to the national public expenditure in recent years. The country's ratio of government spending on scientific research to GDP also jumped to 2.44 percent in 2021, from 1.91 percent in 2012.

In addition, the country's funding for basic research grew at an average annual rate of 15.4 percent, which is 3.7 percentage points faster than that of the whole society in the same period.

Sci-tech innovations boost industrial development

In 2021, the number of new product projects developed by industrial enterprises with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan was 959,000, which is 2.9 times that of 2012. The annual revenue of these enterprises from new products hit 29.6 trillion yuan, 2.7 times higher than in 2012.

China has also cultivated over 40,000 national specialized and sophisticated enterprises, as well as 4,762 "little giant" companies that serve as a dynamic force driving the country's industrial chain innovation and cooperation.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, "little giant" companies are leading small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that focus on niche sectors, have a high market share, strong innovative capacity and core technologies.

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