Li said China’s research and development spending will increase by more than 7% a year between 2021 and 2025. Research and development will account for a higher share of gross domestic product (GDP) than in the past five years. He did not give details on how much the government would spend in absolute terms.
China’s research and development spending rose 10.3 percent to 2.44 trillion Chinese yuan ($ 378 billion) and accounted for 2.4 percent of GDP in 2020, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile, central government spending on basic research will increase by 10.6%, Li said.
This year’s two sessions mark the beginning of China’s 14th Five-Year Development Plan, which sets out priorities and goals for the coming years. The current plan is valid for the period 2021-2025.
In the past, the annual meeting of delegates oversaw major changes, including the removal of President Xi Jinping’s term limits in 2018.
In his report, Li outlined China’s vision for the next five years.
“To improve China’s innovation system, we will work faster to improve our strategic scientific and technological capacity, supported by the development of national laboratories, we will strive to make major progress in key technologies in key areas and formulate and implement a ten-year action plan for basic research, “he said.
China will focus on developing several technology areas, including semiconductors, healthcare, quantum computing and cloud computing, according to a draft of its five-year plan.