China's strong growth in imported R&D also helped the country overtake Germany and Japan to become the second largest destination for in-country R&D at $55 billion. (Photo : Reuters)
A survey conducted by Strategy&, a unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, has found that China has become the most popular destination for research and development activities by overseas companies, according to a report by China Daily.
The 2015 Global Innovation 1,000 Study, released on Monday, was the 11th consecutive report published by the firm. It attributes overseas companies' preferred location to the presence of a high-growth market and key manufacturing sites.
The total R&D investment in China has risen to $39.4 billion, the survey said.
China's strong growth in imported R&D also helped the country overtake Germany and Japan to become the second largest destination for in-country R&D at $55 billion.
About 71 percent of the survey respondents stated that proximity to a high-growth market is the major reason for moving R&D functions to Asia, especially to China.
For Steven Veldhoen, a partner with Strategy&, the improvement in the quality of R&D research and results has been trend for the past few years.
Aside from the rise in the complexity of patent applications made by multinational companies in China, many of them have begun the preliminary stages of their R&D work in the mainland.
"Chinese companies learn quickly and are ultra-flexible, especially privately owned companies. The power of Chinese innovators will increase further, especially in industries such as high-tech, digital and e-commerce, in which Chinese consumers are also at the cutting-edge," said Veldhoen.
The survey results are also in line with the findings of Market News International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Borse Group. Their findings showed an increase in Chinese companies' confidence by 55.6 percent from October to September of this year.
