ChemChina was recently listed among 110 other companies as the State Innovative Company by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council as well as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
All the candidates for the citation have been benchmarked against the four quantitative indicators of R&D input, ownership of ized patents, the proportion of new products (including new processes and services) in total sales and total labor productivity and the qualitative criteria of innovative organization and management.
Designated as one of the second batch of pilot companies for business innovation in early 2008, ChemChina has been stepping up R&D efforts in conjunction with major project construction. It has undertaken 747 projects in the 863 Program, major special projects of scientific-breakthroughs, energy conservation and emission reduction programs, etc. So far 149 research findings have passed acceptance checks and 38 state or provincial awards have been granted. ChemChina's input for scientific and technological progress in 2008 reached RMB3.087 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.24%. By early 2009, ChemChina had 28 in-house research institutes recognized as hi-tech businesses by the state.
In 2008, ChemChina started to enhance patent management. To date, the company owns 2,024 ized patents, ranking 7th among all the central SOEs. Of these patents 1,626 are granted for new inventions, accounting for 80% of the total patents owned.
To build itself into an innovative company in real earnest, ChemChina launched a series of activities that encouraged small invention, innovation, upgrading, design and creative suggestions. These activities turned out positive results in 4,761 cases, and 1,078 of these were adopted or applied.
Last year, the company stepped up its efforts in building major sci-tech parks, having started the planning and construction of the parks in Tianjin, Chengdu and Nanjing.