CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INNOVATION SYSTEM IN THE PRC

Abstract

The article is devoted to the process of transition of the People’s Republic of China from the position of a country successfully adapting and using modern foreign technologies to the state of a country with a domestic innovation system capable of independently creating its own breakthrough technologies and generating impulses of global development. The author shows a radical change in the position of science in the country over the past decade. The number of people employed in R&D has more than doubled with a 3.5-fold increase in research and development funding. The prestige and demand for researches and engineers have significantly increased in the Chinese society. Solving the above-mentioned tasks has required serious institutional innovations, including the implementation of numerous state R&D programs, the redistribution of functions and responsibilities between various participants in the innovation process (e.g. public research organizations, colleges and universities, state-owned and private companies), strengthening the role of the business sector in financing, development and commercialization of new technologies, the comprehensive development of international scientific and technological cooperation etc. Both direct and indirect sources of R&D financing as well as different forms of implementing investment projects in the field of R&D are considered in detail. Cases of the most successful innovative companies and projects are presented. Special attention is paid to the analysis of China’s success in creating a post-industrial knowledge society, including the country’s rising position in various international rankings reflecting innovative development in whole and its particularities. The problems and difficulties on this path are also characterized with a special accent on improving the quality and efficiency of scientific research, as well as a more effective protection of intellectual property rights in the country.