BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) — China’s state-owned enterprises supervised and controlled by local governments reported a 10.4 percent increase in R&D spending, reaching 249.57 billion yuan (35 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2024, according to the State Council’s State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The higher spending is a result of efforts by state-owned enterprises to accelerate scientific and technological innovation capabilities, said Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the commission.

Zhang said earlier this week that since the beginning of this year, the state-owned property supervision and local government management commissions have launched a series of policies to support scientific and technological innovation.

For example, in Shandong Province in East China, local state-owned enterprises are encouraged to prioritize wage increases for scientific and technological talent and provide rewards for key talent on a case-by-case basis. In Beijing and Xiamen, policies to establish R&D reserve funds for state-owned enterprises have been formulated and implemented on a pilot basis.

Zhang said the commission will strive to optimize institutional arrangements to promote indigenous innovation in state-owned enterprises, encourage diversified capital investment and nurture high-quality venture capital institutions to boost innovation in basic research and industrialize innovation results.

In the first half of this year, local SOEs reported total business revenues of 19.2 trillion yuan and total profits of 826.78 billion yuan. Their fixed asset investment was 2.9 trillion yuan. ■