BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) – China’s science and technology policies should aim to strengthen its strength and self-reliance, while the government’s role in pooling resources for key technological breakthroughs should be better leveraged, said Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.
The country has effectively countered external attempts to suppress and contain China’s development over the past five years by promoting the development of the real economy through innovation and nurturing new engines of growth, Ms. Li, without naming any country.
China is under increasing pressure from the United States, which has invoked national security to restrict access to Chinese semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology.
President Xi Jinping urged the nation to enhance its self-reliance in science and technology and continue to strive as a global technological power.
China’s record, however, suggests self-sufficiency will be elusive, despite a “sense of urgency” conveyed by the labor report amid intense tech competition with the United States, Alfredo Montufar said. Helu, director of the Beijing-based China Center. at the Conference Board.
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Li, the outgoing Prime Minister, said in his work report at the opening of the annual meeting of the Chinese Parliament: “Science and technology policies should aim to strengthen our country’s strength and self-reliance in science and of technology.
“The new nationwide resource mobilization system should be improved, we should better leverage the government’s role in pooling resources to achieve key technological breakthroughs, and businesses should be the main players in the innovation.”
Li said China should accelerate the research and development of cutting-edge technologies and promote their application. The development of the platform economy should be supported and regular monitoring should be carried out, he added.
The platform economy includes China’s biggest tech companies, such as Alibaba Group (9988.HK) and Tencent Holdings (0700.HK). These companies have been the target of a long and deadly regulatory crackdown that Beijing says it is easing.
China’s finance ministry and its state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), issued reports on Sunday underscoring their support for the goals.
The Ministry of Finance said it would increase special funds for the industrial and manufacturing sectors from 4.4 billion yuan this year to 13.3 billion yuan ($1.93 billion), to support areas such as integrated circuits. He announced 6.5 billion yuan for local science and technology progress, an increase of 2 billion yuan.
The NDRC said it will accelerate the construction of hard-tech infrastructure, including in artificial intelligence, 5G and big data, and promote the healthy development of instant delivery online retail and broadcast. live e-commerce, key marketing channels for the consumer sector in China.
He said he would cement China’s “leading position” in areas such as electric vehicles and solar panels, where the country holds key places in the global supply chain.
Still, the state planner warned that China’s supply chains face the risk of many bottlenecks and “choke points”, saying the government will plan and implement a number of big science projects and technologies to increase the country’s strength at the “frontiers of international competition”.
Analyst Montufar-Helu noted that Made in China 2025, a high-tech industrial development push launched by Beijing in 2015, fell short of its target of producing 40% of the chips consumed in China’s domestic value chains. by 2020, and 70% in 2025, as China’s microchip consumption was only 16% domestically manufactured in 2021.
“This is despite the hundreds of billions of yuan of investment that has flowed into the sector over the past few years,” he said.
($1 = 6.9048 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Brenda Goh, Eduardo Baptista and Josh Horwitz; Editing by William Mallard
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