President Hu Jintao has said China is looking to increase its research and development spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2020, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences on 10 July.
Speaking at the national conference on science and technology innovation, Hu stressed the need for increased science and technology investment and a national innovation system that fits the country’s socialist market economy.
China is the third largest absolute spender on research after the United States and Japan, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Institute of Statistics. However, the Institute says that Japan spent 3.5 per cent of its GDP on research in 2008, compared with China’s 1.47 per cent.