中企加大研發投入 欲趕超西方外企

Chinese companies are significantly ramping up their spending on research and development, according to a new report.

一份最新發布的報告指出，中國企業正在大幅增加研發支出。

Companies based on the mainland of China have increased their spending by a factor of 15 over the past decade, according to a report from the management consulting firm “Strategy&,” and the number of Chinese firms on Strategy&’s 2014 Global Innovation 1000 has gone from eight in 2005 to 114 today.

據管理諮詢公司Strategy&的報告顯示，總部設在中國大陸的企業支出水平在過去10年裏增長了14倍。入選2014年Strategy&“全球創新企業1000強”榜單的中企數量，已從2005年的8家躍升至如今的114家。

The reason for the R&D growth: Chinese companies are shifting away from producing cheap goods for export and concentrating on higher quality economic growth.

中國企業研發支出增長背後的原因在於，它們正把重心從從生產廉價出口商品上移開，專注於實現更高質量的經濟增長。

“When we are looking at the regional cut, China continues to go gangbusters,” said Barry Jaruzelski, the report’s author and a senior partner with the firm.

該報告作者巴里o雅魯澤爾斯基是Strategy&公司的高級合夥人。他說：“在亞洲地區企業紛紛削減研發投入之際，中國企業仍繼續大幅增加投入。”

“It’s been in the high double-digits for many, many years,” he added. “The rest of the world was double-digit, but lower — around 13 percent — and North America and Europe were positive, but much lower, at 3. 5 percent in North America and 2.5 percent in Europe.”

他補充道：“中企研發支出已經多年維持兩位數的高增長，雖然世界其他地區也有兩位數的增幅，但相對較低，在13%左右；而北美和歐洲的增長更是要低得多，分別爲3.5%和2.5%。”

The findings dovetail with overall research and development trends in China, including government spending, which the National Science Foundation found, is second only behind the United States.

這些結果與包括政府支出在內的中國整體研發趨勢相契合。美國國家科學基金會（National Science Foundation）稱，中國政府的研發支出僅次於美國。

Patents, too, increasingly have a Chinese flavor, with the largest number of applicants coming from China and Chinese residents. The Chinese overtook the United States in 2012, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.

在專利申請領域，中國份額也越來越大。來自中國和中國居民的專利申請數最多。世界知識產權組織（World Intellectual Property Organization）稱，2012年中國的專利申請量已經超越了美國。

“In terms of their development, they have advanced a lot over the past 20 years,” said Mosahid Khan, head of the intellectual property and statistics section at WIPO in Geneva. “They are sort of catching up with the United States and Japan on the technological frontier whether it be patents or R & D investment.”

世界知識產權組織日內瓦知識產權及統計部負責人莫薩德o肯說：“在發展方面，中國在過去20年中進步了很多，在技術前沿，無論是專利還是研發投資，中國正在趕超美國和日本。”

Chinese companies are still are dwarfed by American-based firms when it comes to the $647 billion spent on global research and development. The Americans, as they have traditionally done, are the biggest spenders at $256.9 billion followed by European-based companies at $193.8 billion and then Japan which is third at $116.7 billion.

2014年，全球研發投入達到6470億美元。但中資公司的研發投入仍然遠比不上美資公司。美資企業的研發投入規模歷來都高居全球首位，今年達到2569億美元，其次是歐資企業達到1938億美元，然後是位居第三的日資企業達到1167億美元。

Still, the Chinese growth can’t be ignored. It has gone from almost negligible number in 2005 to $30 billion in 2014. Chinese firms increased their spending from a year ago by 46 percent.

不過，中資企業的研發投入增長也不可小覷，從2005年幾乎可以忽略不計的水平躍升至2014年的300億美元，今年同比增長46%。

Robert Atkinson, the president of The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C., technology policy think tank, warned that some of the Chinese figures may be “somewhat overstated” due to a “rewards system” for state-owned enterprises which is based on them doing “a lot of R & D” and thus classifying some things as research and development which wouldn’t be treated as such in the United States.

美國信息技術與創新基金會（The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation）是一家總部設在華盛頓特區的科技政策智庫，該基金會的總裁羅伯特o阿特金森提醒稱，中國的企業研發投入數據可能“有些水分”，因爲中國對國有企業實施的“獎勵制度”看重研發，因此中資企業會將一些在美國不會歸爲研發的活動列入研發支出項目。

Still, he said, China was “pulling out all the stops” in R&D as part of a strategy to become more self-sufficient by producing as much as they can indigenously and ending their dependence on foreign firms like Apple or Boeing for help.

中國正在加大研發支出力度，而美國一直在削減其政府研發支出。這也是中國未來也許能趕超美國的原因之一。巴特爾研究所（Battelle）和《R＆D 雜誌》（Battelle/R&D Magazine）公佈的《2014年全球研發經費預測報告》（2014 Global R&D Funding Forecast）預測，在研發投入方面，中國最早可能在2025年超越美國。

“They have basically decided the old strategy of attracting foreign firms to set up assembly operations is no longer their path to growth,” Atkinson said.

阿特金森說，中國的目標是“超越美國”，因此美國若要想保持世界創新領導者的地位，則必須做出更多努力，包括制定更優惠的稅收政策支持研發、取消對科技經費的削減。

“They feel like they have maximized that potential,” he said. “This is one reason why you are seeing now a real backlash against foreign technology firms in China going after companies like Microsoft, Qualcomm and other with whole set of trumped up anti-monopoly complaints and things like that. They feel like they don’t need them anymore.”

他說：“美國要硬着頭皮像過去那樣大力投入研發，我們必須做到這一點，因爲我們不能輸，如果我們在投入上做到位了，我堅信我們在創新上能繼續領先於中國。如果我們不這麼做，未來10年或15年內，中國將在很多領域趕上或超過我們。”

And while China is spending more, the United States has been cutting its government R & D spending which could be one reason why the Chinese could one day surpass the Americans. The 2014 Global R&D Funding Forecast, published by Battelle/R&D Magazine, projects China could overtake the United States as early as 2025.

Strategy&公司發佈的這份報告使用了彭博資訊（Bloomberg）和Capital IQ提供的數據，並結合了相關調查和訪談。該報告分析了企業的研發投入和創新水平。除了預測全球趨勢，該報告還指出了在研發方面投入最大的行業和公司。

Atkinson said the goal of China is “beat us” and that America must do more including more generous tax incentives for R&D and reversing cuts in science and technology if it wants to remain the world’s innovation leader.

對於美國而言，讓人頗爲安慰的是，目前還沒有一家中資企業在研發投入或創新方面進入十強榜單。這意味着，在短期內沒有中國企業能獲得谷歌（Google）或強生公司（Johnson & Johnson）那樣的輝煌業績。事實上，排名最高的中資公司僅排在第62位。

“We’ve got to go back and just bite the bullet and you know what we are going to do that because we are not going to lose,” he said. “If we did those things, I have every faith we could stay ahead of China from an innovation perspective. If we don’t do those things, within 10 years or 15 years China will have caught up to us in many, many areas or surpassed us.”

2014年，大衆汽車公司（Volkswagen）和三星公司（Samsung）研發投入分別達到135億美元和134億美元，連續第二年榮登研發投入榜單榜首。英特爾（Intel）和微軟則分列攀升至第三和第四名，而谷歌也首次進入十強，僅領先默克公司（Merck and Co）。除了默克公司外，還有其他三家醫藥企業進入研發投入十強名單。

The report, which uses data from Bloomberg and Capital IQ data combined with surveys and interviews, looks both at a company’s R&D spending and its level of innovation. Along with charting global trends, the report also highlighted the sectors and companies that are doing the most in research and development.

英特爾發言人克里斯汀o多茨說：“我們所處行業的發展日新月異，我們需要時刻準備好取代自己的技術。”他以英特爾的14納米處理器作爲例子並說道：“我們不能按兵不動，我們需要遵循摩爾定律不斷創新。”