Professor Liu Qiao of Guanghua School of Management at Peking University: Increasing investment in basic research and scientific talent is the core measure for progressing towards an innovative country.

On April 9th, Securities Times interviewed Professor Liu Qiao from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University for the "People's Finance NewsBig View" column. Liu Qiao stated that China's absolute scale of research and development (R&D) investment ranks second globally, with an R&D intensity of 2.8% exceeding the average level of OECD countries. This fully indicates that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China has significantly increased its investment in science and technology innovation, which is an important sign of a qualitative improvement in its innovation capabilities. However, R&D intensity is just an "input indicator" for innovation. To determine if a country is truly an innovative nation, one must also consider the "output" and "how it is produced." In China's current R&D structure, there is still a gap in the proportion of basic research. The development in areas such as artificial intelligence and large models shows new possibilities. In the process of technology transformation and industrialization from "1 to N," China has caught up with developed countries due to its scale advantage and industrial supporting capabilities. However, if faced with external technological blockade and the need to build an independent innovation ecosystem, the gap in basic research will become apparent. Therefore, even though there has been a breakthrough in R&D investment scale, there is still a need to continue increasing investment in basic research and scientific talent, which is the key to moving towards becoming an innovative nation.