Photo: VCG

According to the Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2018 jointly issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance, the national total research and test development (R&D) expenditures reached nearly 2 trillion yuan (about $280 billion) in 2018, and R&D expenditure intensity was 2.19 percent, reaching a new high. This means that in recent years, China’s economic development has entered a new stage of transformation and upgrading, and more and more attention has been paid to scientific and technological research and development.

In light of the Communiqué, in 2018, there are six regions with R&D expenditure exceeding 100 billion yuan (about $140 billion), namely, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shandong, Zhejiang and Shanghai. And six regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Tianjin and Zhejiang are above national average level in terms of R&D expenditure intensity.

It is noteworthy that Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and other regions ranked higher in R&D expenditure intensity compared with the rank of GDP, while Henan, Hebei and Guangxi ranked lower compared with GDP.

In general, the pattern of R&D expenditure has been relatively solidified, and the head regions are way ahead.

As the Communiqué shows, the R&D expenditure of Huawei reached 101.5 billion yuan (about $142 billion) in 2018, accounting for 37.5 percent of Guangdong’s R&D expenditure. In other words, in addition to the top six regions, Huawei has a higher R&D expenditure than the remaining 25 provinces.

From the ranking of GDP and R&D expenditure of 31 provinces in 2018, there is a positive correlation between them, which can be simply understood as the richer places tend to spend more money on research and development. However, the ranking of GDP and expenditure intensity is disproportionate in some regions. 

(Compiled by Cui Chunhui)