Accra:China's expenditure on research and development (R&D) increased by 8.2 percent year-on-year, reaching 3.93 trillion yuan, equivalent to approximately 584.5 billion US dollars, in 2025, as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
According to Yemen News Agency, the average annual growth rate of R&D spending during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) was 10 percent, making China the world's second-largest investor in R&D. Luo Qiuxi, a statistician at the Bureau, highlighted that R&D intensity, which is the ratio of R&D expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP), rose by 0.11 percentage points to 2.8 percent in 2025, surpassing the 2.72 percent average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the first time and placing China 12th globally.
The Bureau reported that spending on basic research increased by 13.3 percent to 283.46 billion yuan, while expenditure on applied research grew by 3.2 percent to 444.16 billion yuan. Additionally, spending on experimental development rose by 8.4 percent, reaching 3.2 trillion yuan. Notably, for the first time, R&D spending by Chinese enterprises has surpassed 3 trillion yuan, accounting for 77.4 percent of the nation's total R&D expenditure.
The authority also noted that the share of total R&D spending contributed by enterprises has exceeded 77 percent for the fourth consecutive year. These companies accounted for 73.7 percent of the overall increase in R&D spending, highlighting their role as a primary driver of growth in China's R&D investment.
