Members of Two Sessions say innovation key to growth in China

NPC-CPPCC

Innovation is a focus of this year’s political meetings in Beijing. CCTV interviewed several National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference delegates, who are also leading entrepreneurs, to explore their visions of the future. CCTV’s Ming Tian reports.

China has put great emphasis on creation, especially in the business world, representatives siad.

“Chinese companies’ ability to create has been improving very fast,” NPC Deputy Li Dongsheng said. “The PCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] application by Chinese companies in 2014 accounted for 13 percent of worldwide, much higher than the 7.6 percent figure five years ago. China is not only a major manufacturer, but also a major inventor.”

The PCT is an international patent law treaty that has a unified procedures for filing patent applications. More 150 countries and regions are part of the treaty.

Innovation is not without challenges however. Translating technological advances into consumer goods is no hard task. Li said that it could take years for his company, a leading electronic appliances maker in China, to develop the capacity of designing, producing, and marketing.

Companies should base research and development efforts on market needs, since consumers are asking for more sophisticated products.

“Technological innovation should be market-oriented, especially for the application and engineering products. So the company should take up the leading role,” CPPCC Member Liu Liehong said. “And for our industry in particular, I suggest we form an industry alliance, because we need an ecosystem to make smart appliances such as smart phones, smart TV, and wearables.”

Besides technology development, the creation of business models could also be helpful, said Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, a fast-developing technology firm, best known for its smart-phones and other consumer electronics.

“I believe the world is taking China’s innovation more seriously in the past five to 10 years. Many Chinese business models and products are quickly learned and imitated by other countries,” NPC Deputy Lei Jun said.


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