China's total spending on research and development is estimated to have hit 1. 76 trillion yuan ($279 billion) last year - a year - on - year increase of 14 percent, China's science minister said on Monday.
"China needs to enter the ranks of innovative countries and become a big technological innovation power by 2050, " Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang told a media briefing.
"Basic research and frontier exploration is the big lesson that must be done now, " he said.
China has been trying to ease its dependence on low - end heavy industries and to develop less polluting ways to promote economic growth and move up the global value chain.
The 2017 spending amounts to around 2. 1 percent of total gross domestic product, Reuters calculated. This compares with around 2. 8 percent in the United States, 2. 9 percent in Germany and 3. 3 percent in Japan, World Bank data for 2015 showed.
China's annual R&D spending has risen 70. 9 percent from 2012, Wan noted.
China has established dozens of new high - tech industrial parks and incubators aimed at promoting technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.
Source: CNBA News
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