China Advances Three Major Strategies to Boost Sci-Tech Innovation and Industrial Transformation

People’s Daily Online reports that in recent years, with the in-depth implementation of the three major strategies of invigorating the country through science and education, strengthening the country through talent, and driving development through innovation, the concepts that science and technology are the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force have become increasingly rooted in the hearts of the people. Local regions across China are both promoters and beneficiaries of the strategy implementation.

China’s investment in scientific and technological research and development across the whole society has continued to increase. Zhongjing Database shows that the country’s R&D expenditure reached 3.9262 trillion yuan in 2025, maintaining a steady growth trend for many consecutive years. Against this backdrop, how to better convert the advantages in science and education into innovation advantages, and then into a competitive edge in industrial development, has attracted widespread attention.

Universities and research institutes, which gather abundant talents and scientific achievements, play a crucial role in driving innovation. The key to stimulating their internal motivation and the enthusiasm of researchers lies in breaking the shackles of scientific and technological achievement transformation, removing bottlenecks, and bringing laboratory achievements into practical use. In Shaanxi, during the process of cultivating new quality productive forces, three key reforms have been implemented to smooth the transformation channel, including separate management of asset-related official scientific and technological achievements, evaluation of technology transfer talents linked to professional title assessment, and the use of surplus funds from horizontal research projects for achievement transformation. At present, 113,000 scientific and technological achievements have been managed separately, 48,000 achievements have been transferred and transformed, and more than 3,000 new enterprises based on scientific and technological achievement transformation have been established.

Xinhua News Agency points out that enterprises, which understand technology, perceive the market and bear risks independently, play a significant role in innovation decision-making, R&D investment, scientific research organization and achievement application. The 15th Five-Year Plan Outline proposes promoting the agglomeration of innovation resources to enterprises and establishing a sound policy system for integrating projects, platforms, data and talents into enterprises. Efforts are being made to respect, support and serve enterprises, introduce external resources to help them enhance innovation capabilities, and promote frequent cooperation between enterprises, universities and research institutes, forming a closed loop of "enterprises driving industries and industries supporting enterprises".

Building a sound innovation ecosystem is essential for shaping new driving forces and advantages. Governments at all levels are improving policies and services, deploying innovation chains around industrial chains and vice versa, and attaching greater importance to cultivating a sound innovation environment. Financial support plays a vital role in this process, with optimized gradient cultivation mechanisms for technology enterprises and improved service mechanisms to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces.

Take Xi’an as an example. To promote precise connection between scientific and technological projects and financial capital, and guide various capitals to invest in early-stage, small-scale, long-term and hard technology projects, the city has continuously strengthened its science and technology enterprise investment and financing service platform, building a science and technology financing system covering the entire scientific and technological innovation cycle, with equity financing and debt financing as the main channels.

In the future, China will continue to deepen the implementation of the three major strategies, further promote the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, optimize the innovation ecosystem, and convert scientific and technological advantages into industrial competitiveness, laying a solid foundation for high-quality economic development.