According to Jilin Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the evaluation report 2021 on regional innovation capability was released. The result shows that Jilin Province has moved up by 9 places, the highest of its kind, ranking the first in Northeast China. 

The evaluation report, jointly released by the China Science and Technology Development Strategy Research Group and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Management Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is not only an authoritative document but also a “annual test” of sci-tech innovation abilities of various regions. The report shows that such indicators as knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition and enterprise innovation of Jilin Province have increased significantly. Among them, the government’s R&D investment increased by 65%, the domestic technology transaction amount of industrial enterprises above designated size was 4.2 times that of the previous year, the amount of introduced foreign technologies increased by more than 100 times, and the expenditures on technological transformation increased by more than 14 times. 

Over the past years, Jilin Province has been implementing in depth the important views of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the important speeches and instructions he made during his inspection trip to Jilin Province. The CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and the People’s Government of Jilin Province have prioritized sci-tech innovation as a key to innovation-driven development, with a series of strong measures taken to increase financial support for sci-tech innovation, give more rights to decide technical routes, allocate personnel, manage research project funds to “loosen and reduce burdens” for scientific researchers. The sci-tech project management system known as “offer to undertake the mission” and “make the pledge” was adopted, and the whole society was mobilized to overcome the key technical problems. For the development of the province’s pillar and strategic emerging industries, and making breakthroughs in technologies of life and death, 7 major sci-tech projects and 28 tasks including efficient utilization of new energy, sci-tech innovation in improved varieties of staple food crops, prevention and control of major diseases and innovation in traditional Chinese medicine were implemented. In addition, FAW’s independent sci-tech innovation program was established to congregate advantageous sci-tech forces to deal with critical technical problems. The joint fund pilot of natural science fund at provincial level was launched to effectively attract social capitals in the ratio of 1:3. The R&D investment of the whole society made a great breakthrough, with the intensity of investment reaching 1.3% and the total amount going up to a new record high of RMB15.95 billion, an increase of 7.48% from that of the previous year. 

“In recent years, in order to improve the province’s sci-tech innovation ability, Jilin Provincial Department of Science and Technology has actively promoted the implementation of the agreements on cooperation between the Ministry of Science and Technology and Jilin Province, organized nearly 100 activities, and took the lead in establishing the Jilin Institute of Engineering and Technology Development Strategy of China to create a top-end think tank. In addition, efforts have been made to get integrated into the province’s 1 plus N plus X strategic cooperation framework to establish sci-tech cooperation relations with 14 provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. The counterpart sci-tech cooperation between Jilin and Zhejiang has been deepened, and the sci-tech exchanges with the countries included in the Belt and Road Initiative have been strengthened. So far, the number of hi-tech enterprises, little giants and small and medium-sized sci-tech enterprises has amounted to 2705, 1049 and 1360 in Jilin Province,” said Dong Huiyu, Director of Development and Planning of Jilin Provincial Department of Science and Technology.