Commentary: Promoting innovation is the best way to attain sustained economic growth
By Lü Xiaoxun from People’s Daily
A report on G20 innovation competitiveness has been released ahead of the Hangzhou Summit, which will be held on September 4 and 5. The reports shows the G20’s 19 member countries accounted for 87.3 percent of global investment into R&D, while the number of research personnel per million population is twice the world average.
In addition, money spent on intellectual property accounted for 75.6 percent of the world total, while 96.6 percent of the patents in the world were filed in these countries.
These figures demonstrate that G20 countries lead the way when it comes to innovation, yet despite this their lackluster economies have become a headache. With this in mind, one of the goals of the upcoming summit should be to discuss ways to stimulate innovation so it can promote sustained economic growth.
China may lag behind the other G20 members, but it is also one of the countries that has invested the most in innovation. By making innovation a core pillar of its development, China aims to build itself into a global leader in technology. For instance, not long ago the world was wowed by China’s breakthrough in scientific innovation after it launched the world’s first quantum science satellite.
In the recently-released Global Innovation Index 2016 Report, China climbed up four places from last year’s No.29 to No.25. A recent cover story for the Economist magazine also helped restore the reputation of innovative China-made products while tearing down prejudice against Chinese enterprises by commenting that China and Western countries can now learn from each other in terms of innovation.
The article also demonstrates that China’s improved innovation capabilities have contributed to global innovation.
After the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the world economies tried to stimulate economic growth and increase their competitiveness through technological innovation, but this global innovation failed to take off because of a failure to fix basic institutional flaws.
What’s more, in recent years, some global giants in the rare earth, automobile, telecommunications and other industries have attempted to use their dominant market positions to contain their rivals. However, such acts only hinder the innovation of emerging markets and undermine the exchange and integration of innovation resources from around the globe.
Some entrepreneurs have pointed out that effective innovation calls for the ability to freely exchange ideas, patents, resources and talents from different fields, industries and countries. Global innovation is not something any single country can carry out on its own. It will only be through the creation of a global network dedicated to innovation that innovative entities, infrastructure, resources and ecosystems can support and promote each other’s development on a global scale.
It is for this reason that China has taken “creating a path for innovative growth” as a major theme at this year’s summit. China, as a representative of emerging innovative countries, hopes to join all other countries worldwide to build a platform for innovation.
*（Provided by People’s Daily）
