By LI Linxu

In the latest move to further advance its innovation-driven development strategy, China is stepping up its efforts to build Beijing into a global innovation hub.

By 2025, Beijing is expected to become a major international sci-tech innovation center in the world, according to a work plan jointly released by 12 government bodies, including the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The plan sets up a series of development goals to build Beijing into a hub for original innovation in science and technology, and a center for the convergence of global innovation elements.

Beijing's spending on R&D will be kept around six percent of its GDP, according to the plan. In 2021, the city's R&D spending reached 262.93 billion RMB, surpassing six percent of its GDP and ranking first in the country.

Visitors experience new technologies at Zhongguancun Exhibition Center during the 2023 ZGC Forum. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Efforts will be made to invest more in basic research, said the plan, pledging to increase the proportion of basic research to 17 percent of its R&D spending, up one percent from that of 2022.

By then, the number of R&D workers will be around 260 out of every 10,000 people employed in Beijing, while the number of unicorn enterprises in the city will be among the top in the world. Meanwhile, the annual added value of high-tech industries will exceed 1.2 trillion RMB.

To achieve these goals, the plan sets out a series of major tasks, such as accelerating the construction of world-class major sci-tech infrastructure clusters, supporting the innovative development of new-type research institutions, carrying out strategic major sci-tech programs, building cross-fields coordinated platforms, and enhancing IPR protection.

Measures will be rolled out to create a favorable environment for foreign experts to work and live in the city.

Aiming to create an open and globally-competitive innovation ecosystem, Beijing is urged to deepen international sci-tech exchanges and cooperation and cultivate an internationalized environment for research.

The policy is a follow-up to implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which vowed to put innovation at the heart of China's modernization drive.