Bank loans

CHINA Development Bank (CDB), one of the country’s major policy banks, granted a total of 70 billion yuan (US$10.99 billion) of special loans last year to facilitate scientific innovation and basic research.

The loans were offered to support major national scientific innovation projects, pursuits of breakthroughs in core technologies, cutting-edge basic research, and applied research, according to the CDB.

5G phone shipments

SHIPMENTS of 5G phones in China skyrocketed by 63.5 percent year on year to reach 266 million units in 2021, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed.

The figure accounted for 75.9 percent of the total shipments during the same period, much higher than the global average of 40.7 percent, said the research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Investment destination

CHINA remains an investment destination as its technology startups attracted a record amount of venture funding last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In the year of 2021, venture capital investors put US$129 billion into more than 5,300 startups in China, higher than the market’s last record of around US$115 billion for 2018, the report said.

High-tech SMEs

MORE than 200,000 new high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be cultivated by the end of 2025, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

China will, in particular, boost the development of innovative high-tech SMEs featuring key technologies, research personnel, high-value intellectual property rights, and high research input, according to the notice.