Li said China’s research and development spending will increase by more than 7% per year between 2021 and 2025. R&D will represent a higher percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) than in the previous five years. He did not provide details on how much the government would spend in absolute terms.
Chinese R&D spending increased by 10.3% to 2.44 trillion Chinese yuan ($ 378 billion) and accounted for 2.4% of GDP in 2020, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile, central government spending on basic research will grow by 10.6%, Li said.
This year’s two sessions mark the start of China’s 14th Five-Year Development Plan, which sets out the priorities and objectives for the years to come. The current plan runs from 2021 to 2025.
In the past, the annual meeting of delegates has led to major changes, including President Xi Jinping’s end of deadlines 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 strengthen our strategic science and technology capabilities, supported by the development of national laboratories, we aim for major breakthroughs in core technologies in key areas, and formulate and implement a ten-year action plan for basic research, ”he said.
According to a draft of its five-year plan, China will focus on the development of a number of technology areas, including semiconductors, healthcare, quantum computing and cloud computing.