Let enterprises "take the leading role" in the wave of technological innovation

Securities Times Reporter Han Zhongnan

The 14th Five-Year Plan period is a critical time to lay a solid foundation and make comprehensive efforts to achieve socialist modernization. As the core element of developing new quality productivity, technological innovation is placed in an even more prominent position. The “14th Five-Year Plan” outline explicitly states the need to accelerate high-level technological self-reliance and strength, leading the development of new quality productivity, and includes measures to strengthen original innovation and tackle key core technologies. Among these, new initiatives such as “strengthening the main role of enterprises in technological innovation” and “establishing enterprise R&D reserve fund systems” have attracted particular market attention.

The outline emphasizes the importance of strengthening enterprise-led integration of industry, academia, and research in innovation, with a focus on the word “leading.” In the past, industry-university-research cooperation often involved universities or research institutes setting questions and enterprises answering, or enterprises funding research and institutes conducting development. Although there has been a trend toward integration, inefficiencies persisted due to misaligned goals.

Now, emphasizing the dominant role of enterprises in technological innovation means encouraging companies to set real industry needs as the basis for innovation. Leading tech enterprises should form innovation alliances that organically connect universities’ fundamental research advantages, research institutes’ original innovation capabilities, and enterprises’ market sensitivity. Enterprises must not only take the lead in technological innovation but also precisely target market demands to ensure the innovation chain aligns with the industrial chain.

Policy systems serve as institutional guarantees, acting as the “ballast” to solidify enterprises’ increased investment in technological innovation. The “14th Five-Year Plan” outline proposes strengthening the supply of inclusive policies to create a favorable environment for enterprise innovation. Specific measures include increasing the proportion of R&D expenses eligible for additional deductions, establishing enterprise R&D reserve fund systems, and high-quality development of a “tech board” in the bond market.

Many enterprises have responded enthusiastically to the establishment of R&D reserve fund systems. Historically, some companies’ R&D investments were affected by operational fluctuations—more investment when they had funds, less when they didn’t. The core of the R&D reserve fund system is to guide enterprises to convert R&D investments into “strategic reserves.”

Through institutional arrangements, enterprises are encouraged to make advance provisions and dedicated allocations based on development plans, ensuring continuous and stable funding for major technological breakthroughs. This not only affirms long-term corporate investment but also enhances the stability of the national innovation system. When every innovative enterprise is well-stocked with “ammunition,” the microscopic foundation for technological self-reliance and strength will become more solid.

The journey from laboratory results to production lines often involves a “risky leap.” The outline insightfully recognizes the crucial bridging role of enterprises.

Whether it is encouraging leading tech companies to open up research conditions and application scenarios to small and micro enterprises, or guiding universities and research institutes to license technological innovations to small and micro enterprises on a “use first, pay later” basis, the underlying logic is to leverage enterprises’ keen market perception. This allows technological supply to be tested on the front lines of industry, enables innovative products to iterate and upgrade in real scenarios, and makes enterprises the smooth channel from “bookshelf” to “shelf.”

When enterprises thrive, the economy thrives. When companies truly take the lead in the wave of technological innovation, when innovation resources accelerate gathering within enterprises, and when institutional guarantees safeguard enterprise innovation, the “multi-point flowering” of technological breakthroughs will create a “spring garden” of new development productivity.

(Edited by: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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