Shenzhen’s R&D expenditure jumped to 223.66 billion yuan (US$30.93 billion) in 2023, surpassing the 200-billion-yuan mark for the first time and up by nearly 19 per cent from the previous year, according to government data released last week.
R&D made up just under 6.5 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product (GDP), breaking through 6 per cent for the first time.
That made Shenzhen, home to Big Tech companies like Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings, the second-largest R&D hub in China in terms of both absolute expenditure and spending relative to GDP, according to the municipal government.
Top-ranked Beijing put 294.71 billion yuan into R&D last year, representing over 6.7 per cent of its GDP. The Chinese capital city is home to many of the nation’s top educational institutions and research facilities.
In terms of enterprise R&D spending, however, Shenzhen said it took the lead. The city’s companies spent 208.57 billion yuan on R&D in 2023, accounting for over 93 per cent of total R&D spending in Shenzhen.
