China rose to third in the world in the amount of money it spent on
research and development, according to a recent report by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
China's expenditure in research and development reached US$60
billion in 2001, only after the United States and Japan whose
investment is respectively US$282 billion and US$104 billion,
according to the Beijing-based Economic Daily.
China's spending accounted for 1.1 percent of its gross domestic
products that year, much higher than the 0.6 percent in 1996.
About 40 percent of China's expenditure on research and development
in 2001 was covered by the government and the rest 60 percent came
from domestic and foreign enterprises.
China has 743,000 people involved in research and development
activities and the figure in the US is 1.3 million, Japan
648,000.
The OECD report attributed China's growing expenditures on research
and development to the country's increasing investment in core
technologies.
(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2003)
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