Chinese companies see sci-tech investment up over decade: official

BEIJING - Chinese enterprises' investment in science and technology has continued to increase over the past decade, an official said Monday.

Investment in science and technology by enterprises accounted for more than 76 percent of the country's total research and development investment, said Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang at a press conference.

The number of China's high-tech companies rose from 49,000 more than a decade ago to 330,000 in 2021, whose research and development investment accounted for 70 percent of the total such investment of Chinese companies, Wang said.

In 2012, the country's high-tech companies paid 800 billion yuan ($120 billion) in taxes, and this number climbed to 2.3 trillion yuan in 2021, Wang said.

He added that the number of high-tech companies has exceeded 90 percent among all listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board and the Beijing Stock Exchange.