Anhui ranks 8th in regional innovation capacity

Anhui was rated as the eighth most innovative province in China in 2020, the local government said at a press briefing on Monday.

The province has made remarkable progress in sci-tech innovation since it became the second in the country to pilot a program featuring the development of innovation-based provinces in 2013.

“The proportion of the fiscal expenditure on science and technology in the total fiscal expenditure rose 2.6 percentage points in 2019 from 2013, bringing the province to the fourth spot in the country,” said Luo Ping, head of the Department of Science and Technology of Anhui Province.

Anhui ranked 11th in the country as its research and development (R&D) expenditure surged 114 percent from 2013 to 2019, Luo added.

The province had 98,186 invention patents in 2020. Meanwhile, technology-transfer contracts worth 113.12 billion yuan ($17.49 billion) were signed.

With a total of 8,559 high-tech companies, the province took the tenth place in China last year. As of December 31, 2020, it set up 210 state-level R&D platforms, 175 key labs and 534 engineering centers at or above the provincial level, statistics showed.

“The province has actively integrated itself into national strategies and continuously improved regional innovation and development,” Luo said, noting that it has worked together with more than 40 countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative in building 89 international sci-tech bases and carrying out 252 international sci-tech programs.

Anhui aims to further improve its regional innovation system, take the lead in innovation capacity and gain competitive edge in several key or core technology fields during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), according to the official.

A document, titled ‘China's Regional Innovation Capacity Evaluation Report 2020’, was released last year in Beijing, ranking 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland in terms of innovation capacity.

The report set the first-level indicators from five aspects: knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, corporate innovation, environment for innovation and innovation performance.