Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 12. The Economic Reference News published an article written by reporter Wei Xiayi on June 12, "Strength investment and excellent mechanisms for finance in many places to empower technological innovation." The article said that scientific and technological innovation is an important driving force for achieving high-quality economic development. Behind this, the support of fiscal funds provides important guarantees. Recently, a reporter conducted a survey and visited Shandong, Chongqing and other places and learned that with the coordinated efforts of the central and local governments, the investment intensity of "real money" in various places to support scientific and technological innovation is constantly increasing. At the same time, local governments are also taking practical measures to ensure that "funding is used to the point of using the funds and efficiency, and to give full play to the "leverage effect" through the continuous improvement of the policy system.

High-intensity investment "financial +" effect continues to be released

Since the beginning of this year, local governments have provided high-intensity and continuous financial support for scientific and technological innovation, providing solid guarantees for enhancing the innovation of economic and social development. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, national scientific and technological expenditures in the first four months of this year were 295.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.9%.

Continuous investment - A relevant person in charge of the Shandong Provincial Department of Finance introduced that Shandong provincial fiscal science and technology funds have maintained a high-intensity investment level for seven consecutive years. This amount is expected to reach 14.52 billion yuan in 2025, 4.5 times that of 2018; the total investment in provincial fiscal science and technology funds reached 71.28 billion yuan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 2.2 times that of the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

Only increase and not decrease - From 2018 to 2024, Chongqing's fiscal science and technology expenditure reached 63 billion yuan, with an average annual growth of 11.5%, 7.9 percentage points higher than the general public budget expenditure, giving full play to the institutional guarantee role of finance in supporting scientific and technological innovation. The intensity of R&D investment in Chongqing increased from 2% in 2018 to 2.48% in 2023, continuously stimulating the vitality of innovation and creativity.

While strengthening the guarantee of fiscal investment, many places have innovated the "financial + finance" model, and the "leverage effect" of fiscal policies can be fully utilized and continuously released.

In addition to comprehensively using "financial +" policy tools such as loan interest subsidies, risk compensation, and premium subsidies, Shandong Province has also explored changing "rewards and subsidies" to "equity", with a total investment of 4.77 billion yuan. For more than 300 projects in major industries, technological research, scientific and technological achievements transformation, talent innovation and entrepreneurship, etc., we flexibly adopt direct equity investment, first investment and then stocks, and a combination of allocation and investment to conduct classified and phased investment, leveraging more than 3 times of social capital. In addition, focusing on early investment, small investment, long-term investment and hard investment, Shandong Province also pays attention to the guiding and leveraging role of new and old kinetic energy conversion funds. As of the end of April this year, Shandong provincial level has established 151 new and old kinetic energy conversion funds, with a total investment of 1,759 projects with an investment of 224 billion yuan, and has driven 558 billion yuan of social capital investment.

Chongqing City adopts the strategy of "four and two to achieve a huge impact" to build a relay full-life cycle support chain of "seed fund-angel fund-VC-listing cultivation" and actively plays the role of financial support leveraging. In 2024, the loan balance of technology-based enterprises in Chongqing was 707.5 billion yuan, an increase of 44% year-on-year.

Focus on key areas and financial support is "targeted"

While increasing investment in fiscal funds, the investment direction also accurately focuses on key areas of industrial development and major special projects for scientific research projects, and "targeted" promotes the deep integration of the innovation chain and the industrial chain. In the view of Luo Zhiheng, chief economist and director of the research institute, in recent years, the fiscal expenditure structure of national and local governments has been continuously optimized, avoiding "spraying pepper" as much as possible, and concentrating limited resources to research and target key areas for precise support. This not only increases investment in basic original research and development, but also continues to increase investment in transformation from laboratories to markets, promoting the development of new quality productivity.

Focusing on the industrial fields of integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, biomedicine, etc., Shandong Province supports organizational mechanisms such as "leading the list and taking charge" and "horse racing system". An innovation consortium consists of enterprises, universities and research institutes to jointly implement major scientific and technological innovation projects. The single financial support quota reaches about 10 million yuan, and the projects led by enterprises and universities and institutes will contribute at a ratio of no less than 4 times and 2 times the financial support quota.

Data shows that in 2024, Shandong Province has established a total of 124 provincial major technical research projects, with fiscal investment of 1.21 billion yuan, attracting about 9.18 billion yuan in social investment. "According to different stages and project types of scientific and technological innovation, we have established comprehensive support mechanisms such as competitive selection, diversified investment, and classified guidance, focusing on cultivating high-level strategic scientific and technological forces and promoting the output of more high-quality scientific and technological achievements." A relevant person in charge of the Shandong Provincial Department of Finance said.

Relying on the support of financial funds, high-quality projects and talent cultivation from colleges and universities and research institutions also provide more "originality" for scientific and technological innovation. "Financial support for scientific and technological innovation is comprehensive, with support for scientific research projects, support for scientific research institutions and talents, and support for the popularization of scientific knowledge." said Yang Zhiyong, president and researcher of the Chinese Academy of Finance and Sciences.

Walking into the exhibition hall of Jinfeng Laboratory on the shore of Fengqi Lake in Chongqing High-tech Zone, a "new generation of fluorescent bright field multi-functional digital slice scanning system" attracted reporters' attention - rapid scanning of fluorescent slices and 9-channel fluorescence technology. This domestic high-end pathological diagnosis equipment makes pathological diagnosis more accurate and efficient.

"This system is deeply integrated with AI fluorescence image analysis technology, which can play a key role in immunohistochemistry, tumor microenvironment analysis and other directions. In solving fluorescence color chain problem, the system has achieved the industry's leading position and overtaken several major imported brands in the field of optical imaging. Last year, it was selected as one of Chongqing's top ten scientific and technological progress in the year." A relevant person in charge of Jinfeng Laboratory introduced that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Chongqing established a coordinated investment mechanism between the city and districts, and the fiscal investment at both levels reached 1 billion yuan. Relying on the strong support of financial funds, some original achievements of the laboratory with the core task of "next generation diagnosis of major diseases" have begun to enter the market. Since the unveiling of the laboratory, 55 scientific research teams have been gathered through the dual-employment system, 20 technology-based enterprises have been introduced and cultivated, with a cumulative output value of 120 million yuan.

Chongqing is accelerating the construction of core science and technology innovation carrier areas such as the Western (Chongqing) Science City and Liangjiang Collaborative Innovation Zone. Focusing on the four major science and technology highlands such as digital technology, life and health, new materials, and green and low-carbon, it plans to build four Chongqing laboratories, Jinfeng, Jialing River, Mingyue Lake and Guangyang Bay, and promote the coordinated linkage between universities, research institutes and technology enterprises and Chongqing laboratories to build a full-chain innovation ecosystem of "basic research-application development-achievement transformation".

The policy system continues to improve and improve the efficiency of capital use

During the interview, the reporter also learned that through the continuous improvement of the policy system, various places are also taking practical measures to ensure that "the funds are used at the right time."

According to a relevant person in charge of Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau, the city is currently implementing five major special projects: core automotive software, artificial intelligence, high-end devices and chips, advanced manufacturing, and biomedicine, as well as eight key special projects including advanced materials and new energy. The above areas are also the key directions of financial support. In particular, Chongqing has also innovated the reward and subsidy methods, directly provided financial support for specific projects, and effectively improved the "accuracy" of fiscal investment.

"The enterprise signs the task book for the project, clarify the content of scientific research and the performance goals of the use of funds, and then accurately match the financial funds, so as to effectively solve the problems of low concentration and low quality and efficiency of the use of funds." Liu Xiaoqiang, director of the Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau, introduced.

At the General Technology Group National Testing Shizhan Technology Co., Ltd. located in Chongqing Hi-tech Zone, R&D personnel are testing the products at the round Shizhan precision test bench. "Measure space by time" - the precision displacement measurement sensor parts independently developed by this company are like the "eye of equipment", and are entering the stage of large-scale industrialization and are widely used in high-end CNC machine tools, measuring instruments, semiconductors and other fields.

"The research and development of new technologies cannot be separated from a large amount of capital investment." Zeng Xi, director of the operation of the National Test Time Gate, told reporters that the "R&D and Industrialization of Key Technologies of Precision Intelligent Time Gate Displacement Sensors" project undertaken by the enterprise focuses on breaking through key technical nodes of high-precision, high resolution and high dynamic displacement measurement of nano-time gates, which is also a major special project in Chongqing. "For this project, we have received 10 million yuan in special financial support from the municipal government, providing confidence for our continuous research and development." Zeng Xi told reporters.

Focusing on reform and improving the management of fiscal research funding, Shandong Province has integrated 32 innovative measures based on previous reforms, established 6 new mechanisms to optimize scientific research services, encouraged universities and research institutes to make full use of salary autonomy, guided scientific researchers to actively cooperate with enterprises, and carry out cooperative research based on corporate investment, effectively stimulating the vitality of scientific research innovation.

"The key to improving the effectiveness of fiscal funds in supporting scientific and technological innovation is to give full play to the joint force between the government and the market." Luo Zhiheng said that on the one hand, fiscal funds mainly play a role in basic research and development with strong externalities, reduce the risks of basic research and development, give greater tolerance for the failure of scientific and technological innovation, increase basic researchers' autonomy over funds, and increase government procurement of corresponding products; on the other hand, it is necessary to give full play to the important role of market entities, so that enterprises have the right to choose the technology route and participate in fair competition in the market.