Staying True to the Course Charted for Innovation

China Economic Weekly Issue No. 6, 2019

On the evening of March 22, the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed the list of the first nine companies accepted into the Science and Technology Innovation Board. On March 27, the Shanghai Stock Exchange disclosed the list of the second batch of eight companies to join the aforementioned board. The moves indicated that the board of sci & tech start-ups and the pilot registration system reform in the Shanghai Stock Exchange had taken a step forward in practice. Under the background that the top-level decision makers have emphasized “core technologies for key fields” repeatedly, the preparatory work of the Science and Technology Innovation Board has advanced rapidly.

President Xi Jinping stressed that core technologies for key fields are of great significance to promoting highquality economic development and safeguarding national security. We must effectively improve our innovation capacity for these technologies, firmly grasp the initiative of scientific and technological development in our own hands, and provide strong scientific and technological guarantees for our country’s development.

In order to master core technologies in high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries, we are faced with such problems as long R&D cycles, high R&D investment, high risk of failure, and difficulties in commercial application of R&D results. It is precisely in order to provide solutions to these problems that the Shanghai Stock Exchange has set up a Science and Technology Innovation Board and pilot registration system.