1st LD Writethru-China Focus: China innovation index up 3.1 pct in 2013

The China Innovation Index (CII), which measures innovation capability, rose 3.1 percent to 152.8 in 2013, the statistics authority said Monday.

The first CII results were released in April 2013 by a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) research team, covering the 2005 to 2011 period amid the country's push to build an innovation-driven society.

With a base number of 100 for 2005, the index contains four sub-indices, which measure the innovation environment, input, output and effects.

The sub-indices for innovation environment, input, output and effects rose 4.2 percent, 1.3 percent, 2.6 percent, 4.6 percent separately from 2012 to 150.1, 154.1, 168.4 and 138.4 in 2013.

Guan Xiaojing, a senior analyst with the NBS research group, said the sub-indices in 2013 maintained a steady development compared with the previous year although the growth rate had slowed.

The CII rose 6.2 percent in 2012 to stand at 148.2.

The NBS research team calculated a total of 21 minor indices, including GDP per capita, R&D expenditure, patent granting and energy consumption situation, in order to work out the four sub-index figures.

China's GDP per capita stood at 43,320 yuan (about 7,042 U.S. dollars) in 2013, up 7.2 percent year-on-year or 108 percent from 2005, showcasing even stronger support for innovation development, according to the analyst.

R&D expenditure edged up 0.08 percent year-on-year to hit 1.18 trillion yuan in 2013, an encouraging trend as the country has vowed to seek innovation-led growth on many occasions.

Enterprises consolidated the dominant position in innovation input as their R&D spending accounted for 76.6 percent of the country's annual expenditure, which advanced 0.4 percentage points compared with 2012.

Among an average of 3,477 patents granted to every 10,000 researchers, 11.7 percent were for inventions, said Guan.

Contract transfer value totaling 746.91 billion yuan was seen in China's technology market in 2013, an increase of 16 percent from the previous year.

Guan also noted that high-tech exports rose 9.8 percent year-on-year to reach 660.33 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, accounting for nearly one-third of the country's total export value of the year.

China was accused of putting too much stress on investment of "hard infrastructure", like railways, partly due to concerns about short-term economic growth, while investment was insufficient in research and development.

China should work toward greater investment in "soft infrastructure" -- like innovation -- instead of "hard infrastructure" to climb the global value chain, Zhang Monan, an expert with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said in a recent article in the Shanghai Securities News.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has highlighted the importance of innovation on a number of occasions.

Premier Li referred to innovation as the "golden key" in his speech at the opening of the Summer Davos Forum, which was held in north China's Tianjin Municipality in September 2014.

"We will accelerate the pace of institutional innovation. Innovation has been the ultimate cause of the leapfrog development of the Chinese economy. China's innovation involves not only technology but institution, management and growth models," said the premier.

He refreshed his points on innovation recently by stressing the "great vitality" that can be unleashed if "the people's passion for innovation can be activated in a country with a population of 1.3 billion". Endi