Chinanews, Beijing, Mar. 5 – Head of the Economy Bureau of Policy Research Center of the CPC Central Committee Li Lianzhong recently said that Chinese economy had performed well over the past few years. However, China was still far from being a world economic leading nation, the China Youth Daily reported.
He made the comments on Sunday in a Spring Annual Session on China’s Macroeconomic Situation for the Year of 2007. The comments were made in response to the claim of U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who, on a previous occasion, described both US and China as the economic leading powers in the world.
Li said that at present, China still lags far behind US in terms of the economic strength. In US, the per capita GDP is 42,000 US dollars while in China, the per capita GDP is 1,900 US dollars. US economy now ranks seventh in the world and Chinese economy now ranks 128.
“The gross amount of Chinese GDP is only 13.6% of that of the US,” said Li.
He said that China should encourage more domestic enterprises to conduct independent innovation.
“In terms of introducing and absorbing foreign technologies, whenever Japan introduces a new technology, it can make five innovations based on this technology. In South Korea, when the country introduces a new technology, it makes eight innovations based on this technology. In China, one new technology can actually turn out only 0.075 innovation, which is indeed a very low innovation level,” said Li.
China should build itself into an innovative country, said Li, and there are three criteria to judge whether a nation has reached this goal. First, the nation’s input in research and development should contribute to 2.5% of the nation’s GDP figure. In 2006, however, China’s input in R&D was only 1.11% of its GDP figure. Second, sci-tech achievement should make up to 70% of a nation’s economic growth. At present, China’s achievement in this aspect contributes to only 30%. Third, a country’s dependence rate on foreign technologies should not exceed 30%, whereas China’s dependence rate on foreign technologies now stands at 60%, Li said.
