The reform path to promote the deep integration of science and technology and economy

Abstract: Promoting the deep integration of science and technology and economy is the only way to develop new-quality productive forces and promote high-quality development. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, substantial breakthroughs have been made in the reform of China’s science and technology system, and remarkable progress has been made in the integration of science and technology and economy. But at the same time, the degree of integration between science and technology and economy is not deep enough, and the situation of "two skins" between science and technology and economy still exists. In this regard, we should further deepen the reform in an all-round way based on the requirements of Chinese modernization, focusing on innovating institutional mechanisms in scientific and technological innovation organizations, transformation of scientific and technological achievements, talent evaluation and incentives, and technology and finance elements, so as to stimulate the potential of scientific and technological innovation, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces, and cultivate and expand new quality productive forces.

Keywords: comprehensively deepen reform, scientific and technological innovation and new quality productivity 　

[Chinese Library Classification Number] D61 [Document Identification Code] a

Science and technology make the nation prosperous, and science and technology make the country strong. At present, China is promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation in an all-round way with Chinese modernization, and science and technology, as the primary productive force, plays an indispensable key role. From July 5 to 7, 2023, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed during his inspection tour in Jiangsu: "The key to Chinese modernization lies in scientific and technological modernization." Only when science and technology are deeply integrated with economy can we release huge economic equivalent, promote economic growth and social progress, and enhance the country’s comprehensive strength and international competitiveness.

Deeply understand the connotation of the deep integration of science and technology and economy

Since the industrial revolution, science, technology and innovation have become more and more important, and the interaction, circulation and integration of science and technology and economy have become the key factors for the progress of human civilization. Since the reform and opening up, China has attached great importance to scientific and technological innovation and the integration of science and technology with economy. In 1985, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the "Decision on the Reform of Science and Technology System", which clearly put forward the strategic policy that "economic construction must rely on science and technology, and scientific and technological work must be oriented to economic construction". In 1988, Comrade Deng Xiaoping put forward an important conclusion that "science and technology are the primary productive forces". In 1999, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council held a national conference on technological innovation, which set "strengthening technological innovation, developing high technology and realizing industrialization" as the cross-century strategic goal of China’s science and technology. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has established the overall goal of building an innovative country, emphasizing accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces and promoting the closer integration of science and technology with economy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has put forward a series of new ideas, new viewpoints and new theories around scientific and technological innovation, pointing out that "science and technology must be the primary productive force, talents the first resource and innovation the first driving force" and emphasizing "deploying innovation chain around the industrial chain, perfecting the capital chain around innovation chain and eliminating ‘ Island phenomenon ’ " , require "Promote the deep integration of science and technology with the economy. "

The deep integration of science and technology with economy means that scientific and technological innovation is based on the needs of economic and social development, and it is widely applied and empowered in all fields of economy and society through high-level and adaptive scientific and technological innovation, accelerating the infiltration and diffusion between science and technology and economy, complementing each other and promoting each other, improving the quality and efficiency of economic development, and finally achieving high-quality development and high-level scientific and technological self-reliance.

The deep integration of technology and economy is the integration of the whole process. From the process point of view, technological innovation includes three stages: technological research and development, technological transformation and technological application. At the front end of R&D, the deep integration of technology and economy is reflected in the fact that scientific and technological innovation activities must be based on the needs of economic and social development, that is, we must persist in facing the world’s scientific and technological frontier, facing the main battlefield of the economy, facing the major needs of the country, facing people’s lives and health, and accelerating the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance; In the middle of transformation, the deep integration of science and technology and economy is reflected in comprehensively improving the level of transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, improving the quality and efficiency of transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and transforming more scientific and technological inputs into scientific and technological outputs and scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces; At the back end of application, the deep integration of technology and economy is reflected in strengthening the deep application of technology in all walks of life and fields of economy and society, expanding and enriching the application scenarios of new technologies, and providing strong support and motivation for promoting economic growth, improving quality and efficiency, improving people’s lives and enhancing international competitiveness.

The deep integration of science and technology and economy is the integration of all factors. Technology itself is one of the elements of economic growth, and technological progress is the decisive factor affecting economic growth. In addition, the deep integration of technology and economy is also reflected in the integration and development of talents, finance and other factors. The deep integration of science and technology and economy needs to cultivate a group of high-level and compound scientific and technological talents, and provide a strong talent guarantee for the integration and innovation of science and technology and economy by opening up the talent exchange channel between the scientific and technological system and the industrial system. Finance is the blood of modern economy, and the deep integration of technology and economy can not be separated from the support and service of finance, especially technology and finance. To this end, we should adhere to financial services for the real economy and scientific and technological innovation, do a good job in technology and finance, identify the combination of finance, technology and industry, improve the quality and efficiency of financial services, realize the organic combination of industrial chain, innovation chain and capital chain, and promote "science and technology — Industry — Finance "virtuous circle.

The deep integration of science and technology and economy is a circular integration. The integration of technology and economy is not a one-way function of technology empowering economy, but a circular integration of two-way interaction between technology and economy. Scientific and technological innovation can enhance the added value competitiveness of industries, save resources, improve efficiency, create value and increase benefits for economic development. The high-quality development of economy and industry can provide more financial support, greater market demand and richer application scenarios for scientific and technological innovation, forming a virtuous circle of "technology empowers the economy and the economy feeds back technology". Furthermore, the deep integration of science and technology and economy is to accelerate the infiltration and diffusion, complement each other and promote common prosperity between science and technology and economy through high-quality factor supply, high-level scientific and technological innovation services and sound scientific and technological innovation ecosystem, and promote the coordination and unity of the two.

The main achievements and outstanding problems of the integrated development of science and technology and economy

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a substantial breakthrough has been made in the reform of China’s science and technology system, and remarkable progress has been made in the integration of science and technology with the economy. Scientific and technological innovation has strongly supported high-quality economic development and people’s high-quality life. Mainly reflected in:

First, the "four beams and eight pillars" of scientific and technological system reform have been basically established, and the national scientific and technological governance system has become increasingly sound. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee defined the direction and tasks of deepening the reform of science and technology system, and then relevant departments issued several policies and measures such as Opinions on Deepening the Reform of System and Mechanism and Accelerating the Implementation of Innovation-Driven Development Strategy, and revised and improved the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Scientific and Technological Progress and the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Promoting the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements. Taking perfecting the system and mechanism of scientific and technological innovation as an important measure to uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system, establishing the Central Science and Technology Commission and reorganizing the Ministry of Science and Technology, etc., these major reform measures have laid a solid institutional foundation for stimulating the vitality of scientific and technological innovation and promoting the integration of science and technology with the economy.

Second, the support for the whole chain of scientific research activities continued to increase, and the quality, efficiency and comprehensive strength of scientific and technological achievements jumped to a new level. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s total social R&D investment increased from 1.03 trillion yuan in 2012 to 3.33 trillion yuan in 2023. The number and quality of invention patents have been improved. In 2023, 921,000 invention patents were authorized nationwide, up 15.3% year-on-year. The number of PCT international patent applications in China has ranked first in the world for five consecutive years since 2019. By the end of 2023, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 population in China reached 11.8, an increase of 5.5 compared with the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan. A number of major innovations, such as quantum information, synthetic biology, global networking of Beidou navigation, the success of the first flight of domestic large aircraft C919, and the undocking of the first domestic large cruise ship, have made breakthroughs, and the comprehensive strength of science and technology has greatly jumped.

Third, the achievements of scientific and technological innovation have been transformed into real productive forces, and the development of emerging industries and the upgrading of industrial structure have been accelerated. The channels for the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements are smoother. In 2023, the turnover of national technology contracts exceeded 6 trillion yuan. In 2022, the added value of China’s patent-intensive industries reached 15.32 trillion yuan, accounting for 12.7% of GDP. With the important progress in China’s scientific and technological innovation, a number of original technologies and adaptive technologies have been deeply applied in the field of industrial economy, which has promoted the development of emerging industries and high-end industries, and the overall competitiveness of new energy vehicles, 5G mobile communications, new displays and other industries has been rapidly improved, forming a global leading edge. In 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China were 9.587 million and 9.495 million respectively, ranking first in the world for nine consecutive years, among which the export volume of new energy vehicles was 1.203 million, driving China to become the largest automobile exporter in the world.

However, we should also see that compared with the requirements of modernization, the development of new productive forces and the world’s technological powers, the degree of integration between science and technology and economy in China is not deep enough, and the situation of "two skins" between science and technology and economy still exists. First, basic research and original innovation are relatively weak, and there is still a "stuck neck" problem in the supply chain of the industrial chain. In 2023, China’s basic research expenditure accounted for 6.65% of R&D expenditure, which is still far from the US’s basic research investment of about 15%. As a result, China’s original innovation ability is not strong, some key core technologies in the industrial chain are controlled by people, and high-end chips, precision machining equipment, high-end CNC machine tools and robots rely on foreign imports.

Second, the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements is not high, and the phenomenon of idle scientific and technological achievements and waste of scientific and technological resources is more obvious. According to the Patent Investigation Report of China in 2023 released by China National Intellectual Property Administration, the licensing rate, transfer rate and pricing share-holding rate of invention patents in China in 2023 are only 7.4%, 9.1% and 1.5% respectively. Universities and research institutes are important platforms for basic research, which have produced a large number of scientific and technological innovations. By the end of 2023, the number of effective invention patents in domestic universities and scientific research institutions reached 1.023 million, accounting for 1/4 of the total effective invention patents in China. However, the fear of "unwilling to transfer" and the phenomenon of "not transferring" of patent achievements are still relatively common.

Third, the factors supporting the integration of science and technology and economy are not strong, and the coordination and matching of real economy, scientific and technological innovation, modern finance and human resources need to be improved. Building a modern industrial system with innovation leading and strong competitiveness is a concentrated expression of the deep integration of science and technology and economy. The real economy, scientific and technological innovation, modern finance and human resources promote each other and depend on each other. Shortcomings on either side will affect the level of modern industrial system construction. In terms of talent structure, there is a shortage of scientific and technological talents in China, especially high-level and compound talents. There is still room for improvement in the integrated development of teaching and scientific research, and the training mechanism and incentive mechanism of scientific and technological talents need to be improved. In terms of financing structure, the development of technology and finance is relatively weak, the matching degree between financing structure and innovation risk is not high, and the financing of scientific and technological innovation is facing difficulties. At present, China’s financial system is still characterized by indirect financing. At the end of 2022, the proportion of indirect financing in China was over 70%, which was quite different from the level of less than 20% in overseas markets such as the United States and Britain. The degree of indirect financing risk preference represented by bank credit is low, which requires fixed assets mortgage and relatively stable risk return, which is not matched with the characteristics of high risk, high return and light assets of science and technology enterprises, while the development of direct financing markets such as venture capital, venture capital, equity investment and listing financing that adapt to the characteristics of science and technology enterprises is not mature. In 2022, the amount of bonds issued by China’s science and technology innovation companies accounted for less than 1% of the total corporate bonds issued in that year, and the total market value of GEM and science and technology innovation board accounted for less than 20% of the total market value of A shares.

To promote the deep integration of science and technology and economy, the key is to further deepen reform in an all-round way.

General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "For many years, there has been a chronic disease that scientific and technological achievements have not been transformed into real productive forces, and one of the important sticking points is that there are many institutional barriers in the chain of scientific and technological innovation, and the links between innovation and transformation are not closely linked." "To solve this problem, we must deepen the reform of scientific and technological system, get rid of all ideological obstacles and institutional barriers that restrict scientific and technological innovation, handle the relationship between the government and the market, and promote science and technology and economy. At present, China is accelerating Chinese modernization, and it is urgent to further comprehensively deepen the reform, focusing on solving the problems of scientific and technological innovation organization, transformation of scientific and technological achievements, talent evaluation and incentive, technology and finance elements and other institutional mechanisms, forming new production relations, further stimulating the potential of scientific and technological innovation and economic development, and accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity.

Deepen the reform of scientific and technological innovation system and mechanism, and give full play to the advantages of the new national system. First, it is necessary to strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee on scientific and technological work, give play to the role of the Central Science and Technology Commission in discussing and grasping scientific and technological strategic planning, solving major direction problems, determining major scientific research tasks, and deploying strategic scientific and technological forces, so as to enhance the decision-making efficiency and policy implementation of key core technologies; Second, we must constantly improve the new national system, combine the institutional advantages of concentrating on major events and the advantages of super-large-scale market with giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, gather elite forces and pool superior resources to carry out collaborative research, realize rapid technological breakthroughs and rapid market applications, and promote major breakthroughs in self-reliance and self-improvement of science and technology; Third, it is necessary to further play the leading role of planning, compile and implement the national medium and long-term scientific and technological development plan, and lead the layout of scientific and technological tasks and resource allocation; Fourth, it is necessary to improve the formation and implementation mechanism of major scientific research tasks, and flexibly implement task management methods such as "revealing the list", "reward system" and "horse racing system" for different types of scientific and technological projects. Support governments at all levels to set up scientific and technological innovation advisory committees covering professionals in the fields of science and technology, industry and investment, and pilot the chief scientist responsibility system based on trust.

Deepen the reform of the transformation mechanism of scientific and technological achievements and accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces. To promote the deep integration of science and technology and economy, it is necessary to improve the transformation mechanism of scientific and technological achievements, amplify the efficiency through the whole chain transformation, and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces. First, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of professional service capacity for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The transformation of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities is a key link in the deep integration of science and technology and economy. Encourage the establishment of technology transfer offices and scientific and technological achievements transformation posts in colleges and universities, and encourage the excavation and promotion of a number of cutting-edge technology projects to be transformed in colleges and universities. Support colleges and universities to jointly establish concept verification centers with enterprises and investment institutions. We will improve the management and service mechanism for the whole process of registration, evaluation, release and trading of scientific and technological achievements, build a team of high-quality technical brokers, and commend and reward outstanding scientific research teams and technology transfer service teams. The second is to establish a new R&D platform oriented to industrialization. Support colleges and universities to deploy and build high-level new R&D institutions oriented to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in cutting-edge scientific fields, carry out systematic, exploratory and applied basic research, and provide support for cultivating more emerging industries and future industries. We will build a high-level innovation consortium with close cooperation in Industry-University-Research, guide schools and enterprises to aim at new fields and new tracks, build demand-driven comprehensive laboratories and technology R&D centers, and jointly carry out scientific and technological innovation R&D research and transformation, so as to promote scientific and technological achievements to accelerate the empowerment of key industries. The third is to improve the due diligence and exemption mechanism for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Strengthen the top-level design and system construction of the due diligence exemption mechanism,Clarify the scope, negative list and workflow of due diligence exemption, and eliminate the concerns of researchers, managers and leaders in transforming scientific and technological achievements. Support third-party evaluation agencies as builders and participating executors of the due diligence exemption system, and help the construction of institutional mechanisms for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Deepen the reform of talent evaluation and incentive mechanism, and effectively stimulate the innovation vitality of scientific research personnel. Talent is the most active subject to form new productive forces and promote the deep integration of science and technology and economy. To further deepen the reform of science and technology system, the reform of talent development system and mechanism is the key, and the incentive mechanism of talent evaluation is the key. First, we should improve the evaluation mechanism of scientific and technological talents. Establish an evaluation orientation centered on quality, contribution and performance, and implement a classified evaluation system that is suitable for different types of scientific research activities. Give full play to the role of government, market and industrial organizations in multi-party evaluation, adhere to "breaking the four talents", highlight moral character, ability and performance evaluation, and reduce unnecessary evaluation activities. The second is to optimize the long-term incentive mechanism for talents. Actively create a good environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, attach importance to the income distribution policy oriented to knowledge value, ability and creation, and explore the implementation of flexible wages and performance pay and other salary incentives. We will promote the reform of modern scientific research institutes, give innovative leading talents greater power to decide the technical route, control funds and dispatch resources, accelerate the pilot project of using the "contract responsibility system" for project funds, and loosen the burden and reduce the pressure for scientific researchers. Third, we should actively cultivate high-level scientific and technological talents. Reform and optimize the training mode of higher education, strengthen the training of top-notch innovative talents in basic disciplines, innovate the long-term and through-going training mode of basic research talents, and establish a mechanism conducive to young scientific and technological talents to stand out. Explore the establishment of a project-based and order-based talent training model.Encourage universities, research institutes and enterprises to jointly establish innovative talent practice bases and cultivate high-level scientific and technological innovative talents. Actively create a good environment for the growth and development of talents, vigorously carry forward the spirit of scientists, strengthen the construction of scientific research integrity, and promote the formation of a social fashion that respects knowledge, talents, loves science and advocates innovation.

Deepen the reform of technology and finance’s factor mechanism and promote "science and technology — Industry — Finance "virtuous circle. Give full play to the service role of finance in the development of the real economy and the role of capital as a bridge for cooperation in Industry-University-Research, and support the development of science, technology and industry through effective allocation of resources. First, it is necessary to enhance the technological innovation of financial services and the efficiency of the real economy. Encourage financial institutions to develop all kinds of financial products, and establish and improve the credit product system covering the whole life cycle of science and technology enterprises. Improve the multi-level capital market system, improve the basic system and supervision measures of the capital market, and support the development of science and technology enterprises. Encourage the development of angel investment and venture capital, guide venture capital enterprises to invest early, small and hard technology, and expand "patient capital". Steadily promote the construction of the science and technology financial reform pilot zone. The second is to accelerate the development of intellectual property finance. Improve the management system of intellectual property pledge financing, promote the securitization of intellectual property assets, vigorously develop scientific and technological achievements and the insurance model of intellectual property securitization, financial leasing, transfer license and pricing shares, and promote the deep integration of science and technology and economy through multiple channels.

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics and Technical Economics of China Macroeconomic Research Institute)

[References]

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Editor-in-Chief/Yin Bingyao Meibian/Li Xiangfeng

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