Strict oversight over use of funds to get real results

Editor's note: At Caijing magazine's annual meeting in Beijing on Nov 14, Dong Yunting, head of the expert committee of the China Information Technology Industry Federation, said that by the end of last year, China had a total of 7.14 million patents, among which 90 percent were probably only props to appropriate project funds or innovation bonuses. An editorial of 21st Century Business Herald comments:

Although Dong might have exaggerated the scenario, it is undeniable that China's innovation and patents are high in quantity, but low in quality.

No matter how much China needs innovation in science and technology as a booster for economic growth and restructuring, the professionals working on the front line of innovations should always respect the scientific spirit, laws and rules, and the officials must refrain from the impulse of pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

Although government policy and financial support are important for promoting innovation, science and technology research should not become policy-propelled fund seeking.

The researchers and officials should know that most innovations entail long-term input and countless experiments, the period of which cannot be shortened by only increasing the size of the investment.

That the government usually stresses the quick industrialization of new technologies and inventions unavoidably prompts scientists and engineers to seek quick innovations, while ignoring the fundamental research, which is often boring and less rewarding, but crucial as the foundation for breakthroughs.

China invested more than 1.76 trillion yuan ($253.2 billion) in research and development last year; in comparison the US federal government invested $118.3 billion in R&D, which shows China's longing for innovations. But China should do more to evaluate the efficiency of its investment and the returns it has made on it. Meanwhile, the number of corruption cases involving officials and researchers embezzling research funds that have been exposed in recent years indicate many people treat the government's research funding as a cash cow to fatten their private pockets.

It is high time China tightened the control and supervision over its financial input in pursuit of innovation, and diverted attention from innovation quantity to quality.