Guo Tianyong: Constructing a Science and Technology Financial System Compatible with Scientific and Technological Innovation
As technological innovation enters a period of unprecedented intensity and activity, it has become the primary arena for competition and maneuvering among major powers. Finance constitutes the lifeblood of the national economy and plays a vital role in technological innovation. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that we must "do a good job in the great undertaking of tech-finance, guiding financial capital to invest early, invest small, invest for the long term, and invest in 'hard tech' [1]." Constructing a tech-finance system compatible with technological innovation is both a key lever for strengthening national strategic technological strength and an important support for promoting the optimization and upgrading of the economic structure and enhancing national core competitiveness. We must base our efforts on national conditions and the current stage of development to explore new paths for tech-finance development that serve modernization.
Exerting the Supporting Role of Tech-Finance on Innovation
Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating the reconstruction of the global innovation map and the reshaping of the global economic structure. As a crucial bridge connecting financial capital with technological innovation, the importance of tech-finance has become increasingly prominent. The Central Financial Work Conference proposed to do a good job in the "five great undertakings" of tech-finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, with tech-finance placed at the forefront.
Technological innovation can effectively improve the efficiency and quality of the supply system. Guiding capital toward frontier technologies and key fields through financial means, and promoting the deep integration of the innovation chain, industrial chain, funding chain, and talent chain, is conducive to optimizing industrial structures, increasing production efficiency, and creating new points of industrial growth. The new technologies, products, and services brought by technological innovation can not only effectively meet the increasingly upgraded consumption needs of the people, but also stimulate potential consumption vitality and promote high-quality development.
Tech-finance is an important force in driving the transition of China's economy from factor-driven to innovation-driven. Achieving an effective improvement in economic quality and reasonable growth in quantity is inseparable from the leadership of technological innovation. As an important "catalyst" for the transformation of innovation achievements, financial capital can promptly apply technological innovation results to specific industries and industrial chains, effectively activating the innovation ecosystem and laying a solid foundation for better exerting the driving role of technological innovation.
In fierce international competition, only the innovators progress, only the innovators grow strong, and only the innovators prevail [2]. Only by achieving new breakthroughs in original innovation, realizing leapfrog development in important technological fields, and ensuring that key core technologies are independent and controllable, can we gain the initiative in global competition. Developing tech-finance can effectively promote the tilting of financial resources toward the field of technological innovation, utilizing financial power to stimulate the maximum efficacy of technological innovation, thereby providing strong support for accelerating the achievement of high-level technological self-reliance and self-strength and the advancement of Chinese-path modernization.
Summarizing the Achievements and Experiences of Tech-Finance Development
In recent years, China’s tech-finance development has achieved significant results. Policy support for financial involvement in technological innovation has continuously increased, the system of financial products and services has been sustainedly optimized, and the innovative vitality of the capital market has been rapidly released, providing more diversified financial services for the development of technology-based enterprises.
Top-level design has been continuously improved. The importance attached to tech-finance at the national level has continued to rise, and the supply of policy has been continuously strengthened. In 2024, seven departments including the People's Bank of China jointly issued the Work Plan on Solidly Executing the Great Undertaking of Tech-Finance, promoting financial institutions and markets to comprehensively enhance the capacity, intensity, and level of tech-finance services, and providing full-chain, full-life-cycle financial services for the technological innovation activities of various innovation subjects. In May this year, seven departments including the Ministry of Science and Technology and the People's Bank of China jointly released the Several Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of a Tech-Finance System to Strongly Support High-Level Technological Self-Reliance and Self-Strength, focusing on measures in venture capital, monetary credit, capital markets, and technology insurance, pointing the way for tech-finance institutional arrangements and tool innovation.
The product system is becoming increasingly rich. Driven by policy, the tech-finance toolbox has been continuously expanded. The People's Bank of China increased the quota for re-lending for technological innovation and technical transformation, supporting financial institutions to increase financial support for technology-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and technical transformation and equipment renewal projects in key fields. The "Tech Board" was launched in the bond market, allowing financial institutions, technology-based enterprises, private equity investment institutions, and venture capital institutions to issue technological innovation bonds, and creating risk-sharing tools for such bonds, effectively enhancing the lending willingness of financial institutions and the financing confidence of market entities.
The scale of funding has expanded significantly. As of the end of June this year, the balance of technology loans nationwide reached 44.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%, a growth rate 5.8 percentage points higher than that of all loans in the same period, reflecting the priority and high-growth nature of technology credit in financial allocation. The bond market has developed rapidly, with 288 entities having issued approximately 600 billion yuan in technological innovation bonds. This has broadened the direct financing channels for technology-based enterprises and reduced their financing costs, reflecting the further enhancement of capital market support for technological innovation.
However, it must also be seen that China’s tech-finance development still faces certain challenges. The financing structure is dominated by indirect financing; bank credit prefers enterprises with sufficient collateral and stable cash flow, while technology-based enterprises—especially start-ups—are mostly asset-light with immature profit models, making it difficult to meet traditional credit requirements. This leads to the prominent problem of banks being "afraid to lend" or "unable to lend." The vitality of the venture capital market needs further stimulation; the level of marketization and investment efficiency still have room for improvement; the capital structure needs further optimization; and the participation of private capital is relatively low. The operational mechanisms of government investment funds also need optimization, with room for improvement in capital direction and management processes, and the phenomenon of "prioritizing investment while neglecting management" [3] still exists.
Forming a Highly Adaptable Financial Support Mechanism
In constructing a tech-finance system with Chinese characteristics, we should accurately grasp the uniqueness of China's financial structure and industrial ecosystem. We must both face squarely our financial structure dominated by bank-led indirect financing and actively draw on international experience to promote institutional innovation according to local conditions, forming a financial support mechanism that fits China's national conditions and adapts to the laws of technological development.
First, give full play to the role of the bank-led indirect financing system as the main channel. The indirect financing system has played an important role in supporting the real economy and is consistent with behavioral patterns such as the high savings rate and low risk preference of Chinese residents. Currently, the total assets of China's banking industry account for about 90% of the total assets of financial institutions. As the main force in financial resource allocation, banks possess advantages such as large capital scale, wide coverage networks, and strong risk control capabilities; their role is irreplaceable. Constructing a tech-finance system with Chinese characteristics cannot involve mechanically copying Western models. Instead, on the basis of giving full play to indirect financing as the main channel, we must promote the comprehensive optimization of indirect financing concepts, mechanisms, products, and risk control to better adapt to the developmental characteristics of technology-based enterprises.
Second, enhance the ability of banks to serve technological innovation. Banks should play a more active role in the tech-finance system, taking the service of technological innovation as a strategic task to provide full-life-cycle comprehensive financial services for technology-based enterprises. It is necessary to closely integrate enterprise characteristics and needs, and continuously research and develop products suitable for asset-light and high-growth characteristics. Build a comprehensive risk assessment system suitable for technology-based enterprises, fully utilize frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, and construct multi-dimensional credit assessment models based on enterprise technological capability, innovation potential, and market prospects. Appropriately increase risk tolerance and actively explore innovative models such as the inclusion of data assets on balance sheets.
Third, improve the mechanism for combining investment and lending. Technology-based enterprises generally go through developmental stages such as the seed stage, start-up stage, growth stage, and maturity stage, characterized by high investment risks and long return cycles. The integration of investment and lending is an important way to solve the financing difficulties of technology-based enterprises. Under policy support and compliance frameworks, banks can carry out equity investment and support the development of technology-based enterprises by establishing financial asset investment companies. The investment-lending linkage mechanism effectively combines loans with equity investment, allowing banks not only to enjoy equity appreciation gains brought by the rapid growth of enterprises but also to solve enterprise cash flow needs through loan support, effectively reducing the risk of a single financing method and achieving long-term win-win development for both banks and enterprises.
Fourth, better exert the role of government investment funds. Construct a more scientific and efficient management system for government investment funds, clarify their functional positioning, focus more on medium-to-long-term value, develop "patient capital," and strengthen support for the innovation ecosystem, industrial systems, and the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces. Guide funds toward innovative projects with strategic and leading significance. Adhere to market-oriented operations, improve governance structures and incentive mechanisms, and enhance post-investment management and industrial synergy levels.
Fifth, clear the channels for direct financing of technology-based enterprises. Continuously promote the construction of a multi-tiered capital market system, deepen the reform of the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market), the ChiNext board, and the Beijing Stock Exchange, and smooth financing channels for technology-based enterprises. Encourage the issuance of technological innovation bonds and expand the financing space of the bond market. Improve the information disclosure and credit evaluation mechanisms for technology-based enterprises to enhance market transparency and resource allocation efficiency. Fully mobilize the enthusiasm of private capital participation to create a tech-finance ecosystem with diverse capital inputs. Draw on the market-oriented experience of venture capital systems in developed countries, and encourage private capital to enter the field of technological innovation through tax incentives and fund guidance. Improve risk compensation mechanisms and exit channels to enhance private investment return expectations and risk tolerance.