People's Financial Review: Continuously Deepening the Link Between Technological Innovation and Industrial Innovation

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the accelerated integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation has provided strong support for the development of new productive forces. Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology released an overview of China's technological innovation during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Over the past five years, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, China's scientific and technological endeavors have steadily advanced along the established development direction, achieving historic accomplishments and undergoing historic transformations, injecting powerful technological momentum into the realization of the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The transformation of scientific and technological achievements serves as a critical bridge connecting technological innovation and industrial innovation, representing an essential pathway for the deep integration of the two. Since the start of the "14th Five-Year Plan," China's level of achievement transformation has reached new heights, with the national technology contract transaction volume maintaining double-digit growth for multiple consecutive years, reaching 6.8 trillion yuan in 2024.

Corporate innovation capabilities have significantly enhanced, driving the continuous expansion of high-tech industries. The value-added of large-scale high-tech manufacturing increased by 42% compared to the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, while the value-added of the "three new" economies accounted for 18% of GDP. The trend of industrial structure optimization and upgrading driven by innovation is evident, laying an industrial foundation for the development of new productive forces. As the main actors in the integration of innovation and industry, enterprises have increasingly highlighted their dominant role in technology R&D and achievement transformation, accounting for over 77% of R&D investment. In 2024, 524 Chinese mainland enterprises ranked among the global top 2000 in industrial R&D investment, representing 26.2% of the listed companies—an increase of 4.8 percentage points compared to 2020. The number of high-tech enterprises exceeded 500,000, an 83% increase from 2020. Through the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, technological innovation has rapidly translated into industrial competitiveness, becoming the core force in cultivating new productive forces.

Major scientific and technological achievements continue to emerge, with frontier technologies forming new economic growth points. The routine operation of the "Tiangong" space station promotes the collaborative development of the aerospace industry chain, driving technological breakthroughs in upstream and downstream fields such as materials, electronics, and machinery. The "Chang'e-6" lunar far-side sampling return mission facilitates the industrialization of deep-space exploration technology, spurring new industrial growth points in spacecraft development and deep-space exploration equipment manufacturing. The commercial flights of the C919 large aircraft break foreign technological monopolies, promote the improvement of China's aviation industry system, and drive innovation and upgrades in key areas such as aviation materials and aero engines. These achievements not only realize the leap from "catching up" to "running alongside" and "leading" in key technologies but also establish a virtuous cycle of "technological innovation breakthroughs—industrial transformation and upgrading—cultivation of new productive forces," providing solid technological support and industrial carriers for the development of new productive forces.