China ranks fourth in the world in R&D spending

BEIJING: China which spent about 580. 21 billion yuan (USD 87.25 billion) in 2009 for research and development is ranked fourth in the world after the US, Japan and Germany in R&D spending, an official survey said here.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China which conducted a national R&D resources survey said about 3.18 million people were involved in China's R&D activities in 2009, the largest number in the world.

Cha Zhimin, deputy-director of the society and science department under the NBS said of the total spending, the government invested 135.83 billion yuan on R&D in 2009. This was about 4.5 times more than in the year 2000 or an annual increase of 18.3 percent, Cha said.

However, the ratio of R&D investment against GDP stood at 1.7 percent in China, far behind 3 percent in leading countries across the world, Cha said. He said China still remained far below many developed countries in original innovations.