People's Daily Online, Shenzhen, December 18 (Chen Yuzhu, Xiao Kun) - Studies on Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (2019) - the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Innovation Report (the Report) was released in Shenzhen on December 18. The Report shows that Shenzhen’s innovation composite index ranks first among the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area).
The Studies on Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (2019) is the fourth evaluation on the development of entrepreneurship and innovation in major cities of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. This year, Beijing for the first time jumped to the first place on the list of city's entrepreneurship and innovation composite index, leaving Shenzhen tied for the second. Cities with intensive fundamental research investments, such as Beijing, Wuhan, and Xi’an, performed well despite of the external economic fluctuations that encumbered companies in carrying out experimental development and innovation.
The Report evaluates innovation in the Greater Bay Area. The composite index shows that Shenzhen ranks first in the Greater Bay Area in terms of innovation index, closely followed by Hong Kong and Macau. In terms of innovation environment, the four cities of Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have their respective strengths in market structure, institutional culture, support facilities construction, and industrial foundation. In terms of innovation resources, Guangzhou takes a lead in human capital, while Shenzhen maintains its edge in R&D investment. In terms of innovation performance, Shenzhen gives full play to innovation, Macau grows rapidly, and Hong Kong develops sustainably.
As mentioned in the Report, the lag in structural modernization of the regional innovation market is an important factor that impedes the innovation engine of the Greater Bay Area to catch up with developed countries and cities. The Greater Bay Area is still enmeshed in the challenge from structural modernization, which is reflected as gradually narrowed marketization space for experimental development and innovation, and insufficient marketization of fundamental and applied research innovation markets.
A regional innovation market cannot be built overnight. As the Report suggests, we should:
- Build a system driven by diversified innovation markets, establish comprehensive science centers and sharing platforms, encourage enterprises to establish applied basic research centers, lead schools and enterprises above designated size to jointly build technical research institutes, and advocate international research governance and ethics.
- Build an innovation network where central cities interact with surrounding areas, provide a top-level design for innovation cooperation between cities in the Greater Bay Area, establish an efficient, three-dimensional transportation collaboration system, set up an industry network for collaborative development and cooperation through multiple channels, and strengthen the institutional guarantee for the free flow of talent.
- Build a dynamic mechanism with supply and demand balanced in the three major markets, seek active integration into the global scientific system, establish a cultivation system for high-value patents, and develop non-profit institutions for diversified funding sources.
- Build a support system for innovation markets aligned with international practice, establish the legal advantage for the regional innovation market, build a big data system and a trading market for technology trading in the Greater Bay Area.
“Building a regional innovation market is not only a new practice in the Greater Bay Area, but also a revolution of ideas. It fundamentally requires a shift in the innovation governance paradigm.”The Report suggests that governance systems for science and technology should shift from the government as the sole manager to multiple subjects participating in governance, and the government should change from focusing on resource management to governing by multiple means. We should establish a set of institutional systems for scientific and technological innovation that is feasible, useful, efficient, superior and dynamic.
The Report was written by the entrepreneurship and innovation research group under the auspices of the Counselors' Office of the State Council. The research group is led by Wang Jingsheng, Counselor of the State Council and Member of the State Council Coordination Group for Promoting Government Function Transformation and Advancing Reforms to Delegate Power, Streamline Administration and Optimize Government Services, and the group members are from the team of Prof. Tao Yitao, Director of the China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University and President of the Belt and Road Research Institute (Shenzhen) for International Cooperation and Development.
