A New Era of Sci-Tech Innovation

New Momentum of Development

In a relatively short period, a breathtaking number of scientific and technological achievements have come into the public horizon, including cutting-edge technologies, their application in industry and accomplishments in creating new jobs and markets. These all reflect China’s comprehensive national strength, and add new momentum to its development.

In January 2017, the Chinese government called for the rapid transition from old to new growth drivers and the acceleration of sci-tech research commercialization. After implementating a revised law to promote the transformation of sci-tech achievements, China for the first time promulgated a national plan to establish the technology transition system last September. Then, campaigns such as “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” rolled out on different platforms, adding new momentum to the economic development characterized by new technologies, new industries, new types and new models of business, bolstered by new production factors such as knowledge, technology, information, and data.

Some cutting-edge technological inventions have already entered into the application stage. The global leader in speech synthesis, iKLYTEK’s artificial intelligent neural network algorithm won first prize in the machine reading competition at Stanford University. This technology has been widely used in the fields of education, medical treatment, and legislation. The successful launch of the high-throughput satellite Zhongxing-16 has ushered in a new era of China’s satellite broadband. Meanwhile, China’s C919 airliner will not only boost the growth of China’s aviation manufacturing industry, but also promote the comprehensive development of the aviation industrial chain and relevant industries. The successful exploitation of methane hydrate in the sea launches a new round of natural gas hydrate revolution, and has the potential to shift the world’s energy pattern. It has immense economic and strategic values.

China’s economy is in a period of transformation and upgrade, and sci-tech achievements are widely used in agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries. The key technology system in constructing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge has been further applied. The digital economy based on mobile Internet, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing has flourished. And the “new four great inventions” – high-speed rail, Alipay, bicycle sharing, and online shopping – spearhead the upgrade of traditional industries, and nurture new momentum for economic development.

The year 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of China’s science and technology enterprise incubators. Three decades ago, the first incubator was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, laying the foundation for China’s sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship and later becoming a national strategy. Currently, the number and scale of China’s sci-tech enterprise incubators rank No.1 globally. They have become the main carrier to promote the transformation of sci-tech achievements and nurture sci-tech oriented medium-size and small enterprises. As of 2016, there were 7,533 business incubator carriers, which included 3,255 incubators, 4,298 maker spaces, and 400-plus enterprise accelerators. They have boosted mass innovation and entrepreneurship in the new era, and accelerated the development of high- and new-tech industries, injecting new impetus into the economy.

The research, development and application of cutting-edge technologies have made China a major player in global tech landscape and dramatically changed the ancient nation.