Securities Times:

In recent years, central SOEs have made remarkable achievements in the industrial application of scientific and technological advances, developing a lot of advanced equipment for the country, and have been awarded many prizes in science and technology. What measures will the SASAC implement to empower central SOEs as key drivers of scientific and technological innovation? What are the key tasks?

Wang Hongzhi:

I'd like to invite Mr. Fang to answer these questions.

Fang Lei:

Thank you for your questions. We really appreciate your interest in central SOEs' efforts with scientific and technological innovation. Central SOEs have been important hubs in national innovation chains and the backbone for building the country into a strong science and technology nation. In recent years, the SASAC has taken scientific and technological innovation as top priority and have made significant efforts to encourage central SOEs to strengthen scientific and technological innovation, leading to a substantial number of major scientific and technological achievements. We have intensified our endeavors in the following four aspects in a bid to give full play to the role of central SOEs as key drivers in scientific and technological innovation.

We are vigorously advancing breakthroughs in key core technologies. We have established a three-tiered collaborative system that integrates national overall planning, organizes central enterprises to jointly tackle challenges, and encourages companies to make breakthroughs proactively. Focusing on crucial areas such as industrial machine tools and industrial software, we have mobilized millions of researchers to work on the front lines of technological advancement, thereby effectively maintaining the stability of supply chains. In fields such as quantum information, deep space, deep earth, and deep sea exploration, we have established 97 original technology innovation hubs. We have also implemented 11 special initiatives, including "Strengthening Applied Basic Research," achieving significant breakthroughs in cutting-edge areas such as controlled nuclear fusion, 6G network architecture and brain-like chips.

We are focusing on empowering industry-leading enterprises to play a leading role in integrating production, education and research. We guide central enterprises to collaborate with universities, research institutes, and upstream and downstream companies to identify major needs and distill significant scientific questions. We have established 24 innovation consortia and selected 30 leading enterprises across the industrial chain to implement a "large-scale coordinated approach." This strategy promotes full-chain innovation from basic research to industrialization. We are also building a collaborative and efficient industrial innovation organizational mechanism. Additionally, we are proactively opening markets and scenarios to various innovative entities and promoting the application of first-generation equipment and initial batches of new products. Central enterprises are accelerating their transformation into supportive markets for independently developed products.

We are focusing on deeply integrating sci-tech innovation with industrial innovation. We encourage enterprises to use new technologies to upgrade and enhance traditional industries, implement digital transformation initiatives and "AI+" special actions, and accelerate the development of high-end, intelligent and green technologies. We have launched the industrial renewal and sailing initiatives, adhering to both intrinsic development and high-quality mergers and acquisitions. We are vigorously developing nine strategic emerging industries, such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and six future industries, including future manufacturing and future energy. We are also implementing the Sailing Enterprise Cultivation Program to rapidly build a group of innovative state-owned enterprises that are "entering new sectors, mastering new technologies, establishing new platforms, and implementing new mechanisms." Through these efforts, we aim to foster and grow new quality productive forces.

We are fully committed to improving the system and mechanisms for technological innovation. We adhere to top-level, practical and needs-oriented principles when refining investment policies. Technological innovation assessments now cover all industrial and research enterprises, with state-owned capital allocated for supporting technological innovation reaching 83% in 2024. For 2022 and 2023, annual R&D investments exceeded 1 trillion yuan. We are enhancing development mechanisms for sci-tech professionals. We encourage enterprises to establish long-term, results-oriented incentive mechanisms and profit-sharing mechanisms for the transformation of technological achievements. We have implemented several measures to support researchers, including a separate wage system that is not subject to overall limits, improved fault-tolerance and immunity mechanisms, and greater autonomy in research activities.

Next, state-owned central enterprises will thoroughly implement the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at a national science and technology conference. We will focus on strategically critical areas by further improving institutional arrangements, increasing R&D investments, attracting and developing high-level talent, and achieving international development. Our goal is to cultivate more leading technology enterprises to provide strong support for breakthroughs in key core technologies, enhance original innovation capabilities, and lead the development of a modern industrial system. These efforts will significantly contribute to accelerating high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement, ultimately helping to build a strong technological nation. Thank you.