Development of the regional innovation system: the experience of the People's Republic of China

Ayibota Sailishan Postgraduate student; Faculty of Public Administration; Lomonosov Moscow State University 27 Lomonosovsky St., MOSCOW, 119192, Russia aybota215@163.com

The relevance of research. In the process of reform and openness, China has gone through a process of market-oriented reform and open innovation transformation, and the lack of synchronization of the transformation process between regions has led to differences in the structure of regional innovation systems. Thus, the formation of the structure of China's regional innovation system has unique features that differ from developed countries. China is currently at a crucial stage in achieving a decisive victory in building an innovative country. The joint efforts of the central government and all sectors of the economy are necessary in order to lay a stronger foundation for building an innovative country and a global scientific and technological center. Therefore, the analysis and research in the field of building an innovative country must be monitored not only at the national, but also at the regional level.

The article examines the features of the evolution of the model of development of regional innovation systems in China since the adoption and implementation of the Outline of a medium- and long-term scientific and technical plan, problems and solutions, as well as reflections on further trends in the development of the model of regional science, technology and innovation in the medium and long term. Given the current sanctions situation in the Russian Federation, the experience of building regional innovation systems in friendly countries deserves attention in the context of assessing their potential for practical implementation in the Russian Federation and more effective development of differentiated regional innovation systems in accordance with their own regional characteristics.

Research methodology. The methodological basis of the research includes a systematic approach to the analysis of economic phenomena and statistical analysis of macroeconomic indicators. The material basis of the study was made up of statistical materials from the Federal National Bureau of Statistics, publicly available information resources and the work of researchers on this issue.

Regional innovation research has always been an important topic in the field of innovation economics. An analysis of the relevant literature in the country and abroad allows us to conclude that research on regional innovations can be roughly divided into several aspects. Firstly, theoretical studies of regional innovation systems, first proposed by British scientists Cook and others in the 1990s, F. Cook defined RICE as a system of elements within the innovation process, consisting of organizations that generate and use knowledge, as well as expert, financial and infrastructural structures^[1]. The national innovation system is a tool for analyzing complex innovation processes^[2], and the rationality of expansion from NIS to RIS, linking spatial factors with innovation, is determined by the dual orientation of knowledge. L.M. Gokhberg, A.A. Dynkin identify RIS as a set of institutions at different levels (state, public, private), which, within the framework of interaction, create and they spread new knowledge and technologies ^[3,4]. It is necessary to agree with Divaeva E.A.^[5] that the formation and development of RIS is a long-term process, where government policy determines the strategy and attraction of private capital. According to I. Litvinenko^[6], the foundation of federalism is laid in the very nature of FIG. The regional innovation system is a subsystem of the national innovation system, but at the same time it must develop towards self-sufficiency and integrate into the national and global innovation systems simultaneously. This will, on the one hand, create a competitive environment between the regions, and on the other hand, ensure the development of regional information systems both from below, so that regional and local authorities can determine the internal regional policy and ensure this policy at their own expense and funds that attract investors.

Subsequently, various scientists supplemented and improved the theory of the regional innovation system, summarizing and suggesting that the regional innovation system with its deep-rooted, network and agglomeration economic characteristics plays an important role in stimulating regional development^[7]. In Russian scientific research, more and more attention is being paid to the methods of studying regional innovation systems both at home and abroad^[8].

The second is an assessment of regional differences in scientific and technological innovations. For example, researchers have proposed a model for building the innovative state of the region's economy^[9]. Scientists mainly analyze the gap in innovation performance in the eastern, central and western regions, as well as the regional gap in innovation in the north and south. They believe that the overall innovation ability of different regions of China has improved significantly, but spatial differences have increased. Third, the factors influencing innovation and related case studies of regional innovation development are considered. Scientists^{[10, 11]} use statistical and quantitative modeling methods to empirically study the influence of factors such as the orientation of elements, the innovation environment and links with innovation networks on improving regional innovation potential. It can be noted that scientific research is mainly focused on theoretical and empirical studies of the innovation system, while an in-depth analysis of the overall structure of regional innovation in China is relatively insufficient.

The potential and complex interaction between various elements and subjects of the innovation process is a distinctive feature of the innovation system, which differs from innovation activity. Therefore, Lambuie calls the regional innovation system an interactive and dynamic structure consisting of various participants in the region^[12]. The configuration and geographical distribution of knowledge networks are usually not random, but depend on the characteristics of the regional innovation system, the dominant industry and knowledge base, as well as on the configuration of the value chain ^[13,14,15]. Ma Shuang and Zeng Gang ^[16] studied the characteristics of regional innovation and regional innovation models of China's ten largest urban agglomerations in 2015 based on a network perspective, and their study showed that there are significant differences in the regional innovation models of China's ten largest urban agglomerations. This conclusion indicates the influence of regional factors on innovation in China. The development of China's regional innovation system has always complemented national policy.

1. The evolution of China's regional innovation strategy since medium- and long-term planning

China's regional innovation and development have undergone a gradual and epochal process of evolution. They have gone from a regional innovation system led by the government within the framework of a planned economy to meet the basic strategic needs of the country, through a regional innovation system led by enterprises, universities and research institutes within a market economy to serve economic construction, to the current regional innovation system formed as a result of the interaction of the government, enterprises, universities and scientific-research institutes to keep up with the advanced achievements of world science and technology. The process of China's regional innovation development can be divided into three stages:

Table 1. Stages of development and characteristics of China's regional innovation system

The adoption of strategic decisions in the country and their implementation have a significant impact on the nature of regional innovations. Looking through important national documents for the period from 2006 to 2024, it can be found that the regional implementation of scientific and technological innovations in a country, as a rule, represents an evolutionary process from the macro level to a specific one, from large sectors to improved regional policy. The Five-year plan, known as the main provisions of the Five-year National Economic and Social Development Plan of the People's Republic of China, is an important part of China's national economic plan and is a long-term plan. These include planning major national construction projects, allocating productivity and determining important proportional ratios in the national economy, as well as setting goals and guiding the concept of national economic development. Thus, in accordance with the plan, a regional innovation system is also being created and improved.

Judging by the national macro-strategic plan for the development of scientific and technological innovations, the "Main provisions of the national medium- and long-term plan for scientific and technological development (2006-2020)", published in 2006, represent only a simple outline of the scheme of regional innovation and development, requiring the development of a regional innovation system with its own characteristics and advantages. By 2024, the "Outline of the national innovation development strategy", based not only on the overall national strategy for regional development, identified the overall implementation of innovations and developments in four main sectors: Eastern, Western, Northeastern and Southern, as well as the hierarchical structure of regional innovation, which has been further improved. Clearer measures have been taken to jointly introduce innovations in strategic regions located in provinces and cities, as shown below.

1. Regulations on the development of science and technology within the framework of the national "11th Five-year Plan" (2006-2010)

Promote innovation and lead development. By managing large-scale projects, promote interregional innovation cooperation and the creation of innovative alliances. Make full use of the leading role of higher education institutions, research institutes and national zones of high-tech industrial development in regional scientific and technological innovations and the role of radiation in the dissemination of regional knowledge; actively promote the work of pilot cities on scientific and technological innovations and strengthen the participation of the central cities of the region in regional innovation activities, as well as the cohesion of regional scientific and technological resources.

2. National Scientific and Technological Development Plan "12th Five-year Plan" (2011-2015)

Create regional innovation centers. To support the construction of scientific and technological innovation centers with global influence in Beijing and Shanghai. To promote innovation and the development of national independent innovation demonstration zones and high-tech zones. Create innovative provincial, municipal and regional innovation centers with a strong momentum. Systematically promote comprehensive innovation and reform experiments, enhance coordinated regional innovation and development; encourage interregional collaborative innovation; accelerate the development of scientific and technological activities to combat poverty; expand opportunities for scientific and technological innovation at the grassroots level; and promote the sustainable development of regions.

3. National "13th Five-year Plan" for Scientific and Technological Innovations (2016-2020)

Create a regional innovation center. Support the construction of scientific and technological innovation centers with global influence in Beijing and Shanghai. To promote innovation and the development of national independent innovation demonstration zones and high-tech zones. Create innovative provincial, municipal and regional innovation centers with a strong momentum. Systematically promote comprehensive innovation and reform experiments; enhance coordinated regional innovation and development; encourage interregional collaborative innovation; accelerate the development of scientific and technological activities to combat poverty; expand opportunities for scientific and technological innovation at the grassroots level; and promote the sustainable development of the region.

4. National "14th Five-year Plan" for Scientific and Technological Innovations (2021-2035)

It is necessary to accelerate the creation of an operating system for regional scientific and technical innovation centers. It is necessary to create regional decision-making and consultation mechanisms in the field of high-level innovations with different modes of operation, striving to create an innovative environment for regional scientific and technical innovation centers. The creation of an innovative environment includes not only the construction of research facilities such as key laboratories, engineering development centers, design centers, experimental bases, analysis and testing centers, but also the development of complex environments such as scientific and technical centers, popular science bases, scientific and technical congress and exhibition centers. An important aspect is also the creation of positive conditions, including regional innovation policy, systemic, human, social and cultural environments. It is necessary to coordinate relations between regional scientific and technical innovation centers in order to achieve effective cooperation and support innovative development.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party proposed a strategy for the development of the western region. In 2004, the State Council proposed to implement a strategy for the uplift of the central region and the revival of the Northeast. On this basis, my country has developed an overall regional development strategy for four main sectors. Although the four-sector strategy is not a special strategy aimed directly at developing regional scientific and technological innovations, it serves as a general idea to promote regional innovation and development at the national level in the medium and long term. This is reflected in the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for scientific and technological innovation. In these plans, the state's implementation of regional innovations was carried out in accordance with the main idea of supporting the eastern region in its quest to take a leading position in development, while simultaneously supporting international competitiveness and the influence of national scientific and technological innovations, focusing on the development of differentiated innovation potential in the central and western regions, as well as accelerating industrial transformation and modernization in the North- The Eastern region.

Based on the overall regional development strategy, China has now formed a regional model of innovation and development based on the development strategies of four main sectors: the western, northeast, central and eastern regions. It is guided by such basic strategies as the construction of the Belt and Road, the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in order to promote interregional integration and development.

After the 18th National Congress of the party, the country accelerated the implementation of major strategic regional innovations and generally formed national innovation centers at various levels, such as the National Center for Scientific and Technical Innovation, the National Science Center and joint Innovation zones. In particular, science and technology innovation centers are located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao to accelerate the construction of globally significant science and technology innovation centers; Integrated national science centers include Beijing, Huaizhou, Shanghai, Zhangjiang, Hefei, and Shenzhen, which have become the country's base platform for level improvement. fundamental research and strengthening of original innovative potential. The joint innovation zones cover Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Chengyu and the Belt and Road, as well as the other five strategic innovation belts, which have become innovation centers that stimulate the country to optimize its system of innovation capabilities.

2. General level of regional innovation and development

In order to comprehensively and comparatively study the level of regional innovation potential, the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology (Development Strategy) conducted an evaluation study of China's regional scientific and technological innovation potential. After many years of improvement and continuous evaluation, the results of monitoring and evaluation have become an important guideline for Chinese local governments. They will have to analyze the state of regional innovation potential and formulate a regional policy in the field of scientific and technological innovations. As one of a series of reports from the national Innovation Survey system, the "China Regional Scientific and Technological Innovation Assessment Report" is a system of indexes based on five dimensions: the scientific and technological innovation environment, the contribution of scientific and technological activities, the results of scientific and technological activities, China's industrialization, high and new technologies, and as well as promoting economic and social development through science and technology. The document also includes a comparison and assessment of the level of scientific and technological progress in different regions. In the report, each province is ranked according to the level of regional innovation potential. The evaluation indicators consist of five main categories, including comprehensive indicators of knowledge creation, comprehensive indicators of knowledge acquisition, comprehensive indicators of enterprise innovation, comprehensive indicators of the innovation environment, and comprehensive indicators of innovation performance. Thus, Figure 1 shows the rating of the regional innovation potential of each province. Medium- and long-term changes in the assessment results are an important guideline for analyzing relative changes in the regional level of China's innovation potential. The current differences in China's regional innovation potential are mainly reflected in the differences between the southern and eastern regions.

Figure 1- Ranking of China's regional innovations in 2024^[17]

3. The main problems of modern construction of China's regional innovation system

Although the construction of China's regional innovation system has made obvious progress compared to developed countries, China's regional innovation system, whether in top-level design or in resource integration, organization and coordination, work mechanism, knowledge absorption, etc., has a large gap, and there are still some institutional and organizational obstacles in the process She is still unable to fully take on the heavy responsibility imposed on her by innovative development. In particular, there are the following problems in building a modern regional innovation system in China:

1. The problem of regional imbalance is still relevant, and the gap between the innovation opportunities of the north and the south of the country is growing.

2. The institutional mechanism of joint innovation in urban agglomerations is not yet sufficiently perfect, and its functions have not been effectively used.

3. Insufficient influx of innovative factors, distortions in the distribution of innovative factors and insufficient potential for original innovations.

4. The level of development of some regional innovation platforms is low, problems such as loss of talent and unclear leadership direction are noticeable, and the phenomenon of incomplete regional innovation elements and lack of functions is widespread.

In accordance with the characteristics and functional requirements of a high-level open regional innovation system, as well as the existing foundation of China's regional innovation system and its challenges, the construction of a high-level open regional innovation system in China should focus on the following areas:

First, efforts are currently underway to establish a number of high-level scientific, technical and innovation centers. International experience shows that a strong innovative country can rely either on several global scientific and technological innovation centers with international influence, or on a relatively decentralized regional innovation network. When building the Japanese innovation system, more attention is paid to the localized cluster network, using an organic mechanism of cooperation between government, industry, academia and research institutions, formed in clusters over a long period of time, to create an interconnected chain with complementary advantages from basic research, applied research to engineering and industrialization. The construction of China's regional innovation system should be based on the spatial distribution of scientific and technical innovation resources, relying on Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Hefei, Shenyang and other regional central cities with relatively concentrated innovation resources to create a national scientific and technical innovation center with its own characteristics and location., and thus spread and lead to the formation of an open regional innovation network consisting of several hub cities in the region. At the national level, a joint innovation mechanism for interregional synergy, intersectoral interaction and transnational cooperation will be created, which will allow for interconnection, mutual support and resource exchange between various regional innovation systems.

Secondly, efforts should be made to create a number of high-level regional innovation infrastructures focused on the new technological revolution. Due to the beginning of large-scale commercial application of new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, it is possible to more actively strategically deploy advanced areas of fundamental science, including the creation of national laboratories and the construction of a number of large research centers in a number of innovative cities that have every opportunity to create a diversified mechanism for contributing to regional innovation infrastructure and the formation of a management system. regional innovation infrastructure at the level of world standards.

Third, efforts will be made to promote the transformation and modernization of industrial clusters, as well as the synergetic modernization of industrial and innovation chains. Whether it is a traditional or emerging industrial cluster, local governments should take advantage of the situation to use their own industrial cluster's production organization, knowledge potential, and social network, attract technical talents and entrepreneurs to participate in the process, and allow the cluster's core enterprises to stimulate the synergetic development of small, medium, and microenterprises to promote effective alignment, synergy, and iteration between the industrial chain and the innovation chain.

Fourth, efforts will be made to strengthen international innovation cooperation, in which the internal cycle is the main one, and the internal and international cycles mutually reinforce each other in order to facilitate the integration of regional innovation systems into the global innovation network at a high level. In the context of global innovation competition, the United States is at the forefront of the innovation chain, and China is at the middle, facing the challenge of advancing towards high-quality development, but this task should not be solved by closing the door ^[18]. A high-level open joint innovation system includes not only open cooperation at the domestic level, but also at the international level, and China needs to develop international innovation cooperation to the same extent as it develops industry.

Conclusion

Regional innovation and development are an important pillar for the comprehensive implementation of the national innovation development strategy and the acceleration of the construction of an innovative country. Thus, based on China's experience in building a regional innovation system, it can be concluded that, first of all, scientific and technical innovation centers and strategic regions have become a key pillar for national innovation and development. Innovation centers and their surrounding inner provinces work together to contribute to an overall increase in innovation. Regional innovation and development, as well as the regional innovation community, will become the main form of organization of the regional innovation space in the future. At the same time, this experience can be used as a guideline for building a regional innovation system in the Russian Federation.