Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting Further Systemic and Institutional Reforms to Accelerate the Implementation of Innovation-driven Development Strategies

Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting Further Systemic and Institutional Reforms to Accelerate the Implementation of Innovation-driven Development Strategies

March 13, 2015

Innovation is an important force pushing forward the development of the state, nationality and the whole human society. Faced with significant opportunities and challenges in the new round of global technological revolution and industrial revolution, the trend change and characteristics in respect of the new normal state of economic development, and the historical task of and requirement for achieving the goals of "two hundred years", in view of the necessary deepening of systemic and institutional reform and acceleration of the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy, the following opinions are hereby put forward.

I. General idea and main objectives
Accelerating the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy means playing the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources and giving a better play to the role of government, getting rid of all the ideological obstructions and institutional barriers restricting the innovation, stimulating the innovation and creativity potential of the whole society, enhancing the efficiency and benefits of the work, information, knowledge, technology, management and capital, reinforcing the connection between the science and technology and economy, innovations and industry, innovative projects and real productivity, innovative work done by research staff and their gains, strengthening the contribution of scientific and technological progress to the economic development, and creating the policy environment and institutional environment for the entrepreneurship and innovation of the public.
- Adhere to the demand-oriented. Closely follow the major demands of economic and social development, make efforts to open up the channels for the conversion of the scientific and technological achievements into practical productive forces, to get rid of the innovation barriers in front of scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and pioneers, to address the restriction on the transition from factor-driven development and investment-driven development to innovation-driven development, so as to enable the innovation to create the new growth point and convert the innovations into real industrial activities.
- Talents first all the time. Take the talents as the first resource for innovation, pay more attention to the cultivation, good use and attraction of various talents, promote the rational flow of and optimize the allocation of talents, and innovate in the talent cultivation model; pay more attention to strengthening the incentive mechanism, and give scientific and technical personnel more rewards and spiritual encouragement; lay more emphasis on giving play to the role of entrepreneurs and technicians in the innovation, and fully stimulate the creativity of the whole society.
- Adhere to follow the law. According to the characteristics of science and technology activities, grasp the laws of exploration and discovery for scientific research, and create good conditions and a favorable environment for concentration on studies, invention and creation and technological breakthroughs by scientists; grasp the market rules of technological innovation, and make the market become the primary way for optimizing the allocation of innovation resources, enterprises the main force of technological innovation, and the intellectual property system the basic guarantee for innovation encouragement; vigorously create the culture and social atmosphere for encouraging the exploration and innovation and tolerating failure.
- Adhere to a comprehensive innovation. Place the technology innovation at the core of the overall development of the country, coordinate and promote the reform of scientific and technological system and economy and society, coordinate and promote the innovation of science and technology, management, brand, organization and business model, coordinate and promote the innovation of military and civilian integration, coordinate and promote the innovation of cooperation between introduction and output, so as to realize the organic unification and synergetic development of technological innovation, system innovation and open innovation.
Up to 2020, the institutional environment, policy system and legal system adapted to requirements of innovation-driven development are expected to be formed on the whole, providing effective guarantee for ensuring that China can be an innovative country. It is expected to realize the free flow of talents, capital, technology and knowledge and the collaborative innovation by enterprises, research institutes and institutions of higher education; inspire the vitality to make innovation, put the innovation under the full protection, reflect more innovation value, substantially improve the efficiency of innovation resource allocation, achieve the reasonable sharing of gains from innovation by creative talents, turn into reality the innovation-driven development strategy, and then build a new engine for promotion of economic growth, employment and entrepreneurship, construct the new advantages in international competition and cooperation, promote the formation of a new pattern of sustainable development, and promote the transformation of economic development mode.

II. Create a fair competition environment for encouragement of innovation
Give a play to the fundamental role of the market competition in the encouragement of innovation, create a fair, open and transparent market environment, strengthen the guidance of competition policy and industrial policy for innovation, promote the survival of the fittest, and reinforce the innovative impetus of main market players.
1. Carry out the strict intellectual property protection system
Improve the laws on intellectual property protection, conduct the research on lowering the threshold for criminal sanction imposed on infringers, adjust the damages standards, and explore the implementation of punitive damages system. Improve the rights protection mechanisms for right holders, and make reasonable allocation of the burden of proof borne by the right holders.
Improve the legal system to protect business secrets, make clear definition of business secrets and infringement act, study the formulation of appropriate protective measures, and explore the establishment of pre-litigation protection system. Conduct the research on intellectual property right protection measures for innovations of new forms such as the business model.
Improve the intellectual property trial mechanism, promote the "Three-Trial-in One" of civil case, criminal case and administrative case on the intellectual property rights, give active play to the role of intellectual property court, and explore the mechanism of trans-regional intellectual property trail in different places to break the local protection of infringement.
Perfect the intellectual property infringement investigation mechanisms, strengthen the connection between the administrative enforcement of law and judicature, strengthen the comprehensive administrative law enforcement of intellectual property rights, perfect the intellectual property rights protection and support system and include the information on infringement act in the social credit history.
2. Break the industry monopolies and market segmentation restricting the innovation
Speed up the reform of monopoly industries, liberalize the competitive business in natural monopoly industries, and build an unified, transparent, standardized and orderly market environment for encouragement of innovation.
Practically strengthen the enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, timely detect and prevent the monopolistic behaviors such as the monopoly agreements and abuse of dominant market position, so as to broaden the space for innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Break the local protection, sort out and abolish the rules and practices impeding the formation of an unified national market, rectify the improper subsidies or the act to restrict or exclude competition by making use of the administrative power by local governments, and explore and implement the inspection system for a fair competition.
3. Improve the access management of new technologies, new products and new business models
Reform the industrial access system, develop and implement the negative list for industrial access, and allow the equal access of any market player according to the law to any industry, field, business or otherwise that is not included in the negative list for management.
Get rid of the unreasonable access barriers having restrictions on the development of new technology, new product and new business model. Build a convenient and efficient regulatory model for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other innovative products, deepen the reform of the review and approval system, increase review resources, streamline processes, reduce the cycle via a variety of channels, and support the development of new organization models, such as the sub-contract production.
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