Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2018

Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2018 [1]

National Bureau of Statistics

Ministry of Science and Technology

Ministry of Finance

August 30, 2019

In 2018, China’s total expenditures on science and technology (S&T) have increased, and the investment in research and test development (R&D) maintained a rapid growth. The S&T funds allocated by national finance has accelerated, and the intensity of investment in R&D continued to improve.

I. Research and Experimental Development (R & D) expenditures

In 2018, national total R&D expenditures reached 1,967.79 billion yuan, an increase of 207.18 billion yuan or 11.8 percent over that in the previous year. R&D expenditure intensity (ratio to GDP [2]) was 2.19 percent, which was 0.04 percentage point [3] higher than last year. According to the full-time workload of R&D personnel, the per-capita expenditure was 449,000 yuan, an increase of 13,000 yuan over the previous year.

In terms of different types of activities, the expenditure on basic research, applied research, and experimental development hit 109.04, 219.09 and 1,639.67 billion yuan, respectively increased 11.8, 18.5 and 10.9 percent than that in last year, while the proportion of expenditure respectively was 5.5, 11.1 and 83.3 percent.

In terms of different performing sectors of activities, the expenditures by all types of enterprises, research institutions subordinated to the government departments, and universities reached 1,523.37, 269.17 and 145.79 billion yuan, respectively up 11.5, 10.5 and 15.2 percent than that in the previous year, while the proportion of expenditure accounted for 77.4, 13.7 and 7.4 percent respectively.

In terms of different regions, in view of provinces and municipalities with the investment on R&D above 100 billion yuan, the top six were Guangdong (13.7 percent), Jiangsu (12.7 percent), Beijing (9.5 percent), Shandong (8.4 percent), Zhejiang (7.3 percent) and Shanghai (6.9 percent). There were 6 provinces and municipalities where the intensity of R&D expenditure (ratio to GDP[4]) exceeded the national average level, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Tianjin and Zhejiang (see appendix).

II. S&T funds allocated by finance

In 2018, S&T funds allocated by national finance amounted to 951.82 billion yuan, an increase of 113.46 billion yuan or 13.5 percent than that in last year, sharing 4.31 percent in national financial expenditure of that year and an increase of 0.18 percentage point over last year. Among which, S&T funds allocated by central finance jumped 373.85 billion yuan, increased 9.3 percent, and accounted for 39.3 percent of S&T funds allocated by finance, S&T funds allocated by local finance reached 577.97 billion yuan, increased 16.5 percent, and accounted for 60.7 percent.