Build a Science and Technology Financial System That Adapts to Scientific and Technological Innovation

As technological innovation enters an unprecedentedly intensive and active period, scientific and technological innovation has become an arena for competition and gaming among major powers. Finance is the lifeblood of the national economy and plays an important role in scientific and technological innovation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “We must do a good job in the article of science and technology finance, guiding financial capital to invest early, invest small, invest long-term, and invest in hard technology.” [1]1 “Hard technology” (硬科技) refers to key core technologies that are difficult to replicate and have high barriers, such as those in artificial intelligence, aerospace, and biotechnology. Building a science and technology financial system that adapts to scientific and technological innovation is both a key lever for strengthening the national strategic scientific and technological forces and an important support for promoting economic structural optimization and upgrading and enhancing the country’s core competitiveness. It is necessary to base ourselves on national conditions and the stage of development, and explore new paths for the development of science and technology finance that serve modernization.

随着技术创新进入前所未有的密集活跃期，科技创新已成为大国竞争博弈的角力场。金融是国民经济的血脉，在科技创新中发挥重要作用。习近平总书记指出，“要做好科技金融这篇文章，引导金融资本投早、投小、投长期、投硬科技”。构建同科技创新相适应的科技金融体制，既是强化国家战略科技力量的关键抓手，也是推动经济结构优化升级、增强国家核心竞争力的重要支撑。必须立足国情和发展阶段，探索服务现代化建设的科技金融发展新路径。

Give play to the supporting role of science and technology finance in innovation

发挥科技金融对创新的支撑作用

Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating the reconstruction of the global innovation landscape and reshaping the global economic structure. As a key bridge connecting financial capital with scientific and technological innovation, the importance of science and technology finance is becoming increasingly prominent. The Central Financial Work Conference proposed doing a good job in the five major articles of science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance, with science and technology finance ranking first. [2]2 The Central Financial Work Conference (中央金融工作会议) was held in October 2023, outlining the direction for China’s financial work in the New Era.

当前，新一轮科技革命和产业变革正在加速重构全球创新版图、重塑全球经济结构，科技金融作为连接金融资本与科技创新的关键桥梁，其重要性愈加凸显。中央金融工作会议提出做好科技金融、绿色金融、普惠金融、养老金融、数字金融五篇大文章，科技金融居于首位。

Scientific and technological innovation can effectively improve the efficiency and quality of the supply system. By guiding capital through financial means to invest in cutting-edge technologies and key fields, and promoting the deep integration of the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain, it is conducive to optimizing the industrial structure, improving production efficiency, and creating new industrial growth points. The new technologies, new products, and new services brought by scientific and technological innovation can not only effectively meet the people’s increasingly upgraded consumption needs but also stimulate potential consumption vitality and promote high-quality economic development.

科技创新能够有效提升供给体系的效率和质量。通过金融手段引导资本投向前沿技术和关键领域，推动创新链产业链资金链人才链深度融合，有利于优化产业结构、提高生产效率、创造新的产业增长点。科技创新带来的新技术、新产品和新服务，不仅能够有效满足人民群众日益升级的消费需求，更能激发出潜在消费活力，促进经济高质量发展。

Science and technology finance is an important force driving China’s economy from factor-driven to innovation-driven transformation. Promoting the economy to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth is inseparable from the leadership of scientific and technological innovation. Financial capital, as an important “catalyst” for promoting the transformation of innovation achievements, can promptly apply the achievements of scientific and technological innovation to specific industries and industrial chains, effectively activate the innovation ecosystem, and lay a solid foundation for better leveraging the driving role of scientific and technological innovation.

科技金融是推动我国经济由要素驱动向创新驱动转变的重要力量。推动经济实现质的有效提升和量的合理增长，离不开科技创新引领。金融资本作为推动创新成果转化的重要“催化剂”，能够及时将科技创新成果应用到具体产业和产业链上，有效激活创新生态，为更好发挥科技创新的驱动作用奠定坚实基础。

In fierce international competition, only innovators advance, only innovators are strong, and only innovators win. Only by achieving new breakthroughs in original innovation, achieving leapfrog development in important scientific and technological fields, and ensuring that key core technologies are independently controllable can we gain the initiative in global competition. Developing science and technology finance can effectively promote the tilt of financial resources toward the field of scientific and technological innovation, use financial power to stimulate the maximum effectiveness of scientific and technological innovation, and provide strong support for accelerating the achievement of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening and advancing Chinese-path modernization.

在激烈的国际竞争中，惟创新者进，惟创新者强，惟创新者胜。只有在原始创新上取得新突破，在重要科技领域实现跨越式发展，确保关键核心技术自主可控，才能在全球竞争中赢得主动。发展科技金融能够有效推动金融资源向科技创新领域倾斜，以金融力量激发科技创新的最大效能，为加快实现高水平科技自立自强、推进中国式现代化提供有力支撑。

Summarize the achievements and experience of science and technology finance development

总结科技金融发展的成效与经验

In recent years, China’s science and technology finance development has achieved remarkable results. The policy intensity of financial support for scientific and technological innovation has been continuously increased, the financial product and service system has been continuously optimized, and the innovation vitality of the capital market has been accelerated, providing more diversified financial services for the development of science and technology-based enterprises.

近年来，我国科技金融发展成效显著，金融支持科技创新的政策力度不断加大，金融产品和服务体系持续优化，资本市场创新活力加速释放，为科技型企业发展提供了更加多元的金融服务。

Top-level design has been continuously improved. The national level’s emphasis on science and technology finance has been continuously enhanced, and policy supply has been continuously strengthened. In 2024, the People’s Bank of China and six other departments jointly issued the “Work Plan on Solidly Doing a Good Job in the Major Article of Science and Technology Finance,” promoting financial institutions and financial markets to comprehensively enhance the capacity, intensity, and level of science and technology financial services, providing full-chain and full-lifecycle financial services for the scientific and technological innovation activities of various innovation entities. In May of this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the People’s Bank of China, and six other departments jointly issued “Several Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of a Science and Technology Financial System and Effectively Support High-Level Scientific and Technological Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening,” focusing on venture capital, monetary credit, capital markets, and technology insurance, among other aspects, proposing measures that point the way for the institutional arrangements and tool innovation of science and technology finance.

顶层设计不断完善。国家层面对科技金融的重视程度持续提升，政策供给持续强化。2024年，中国人民银行等七部门联合印发《关于扎实做好科技金融大文章的工作方案》，推动金融机构和金融市场全面提升科技金融服务能力、强度和水平，为各类创新主体的科技创新活动提供全链条全生命周期金融服务。今年5月，科技部、中国人民银行等七部门联合发布《加快构建科技金融体制 有力支撑高水平科技自立自强的若干政策举措》，聚焦创业投资、货币信贷、资本市场、科技保险等方面提出举措，为科技金融制度安排和工具创新指明了方向。

The product system has become increasingly rich. Driven by policies, the science and technology finance toolbox has been continuously enriched. The People’s Bank of China increased the quota of relending for scientific and technological innovation and technological transformation, supporting financial institutions to increase financial support for small and medium-sized science and technology-based enterprises and technological transformation and equipment renewal projects in key areas. It launched a “technology board” in the bond market, allowing financial institutions, science and technology-based enterprises, private equity investment institutions, and venture capital institutions to issue scientific and technological innovation bonds, and created risk-sharing tools for scientific and technological innovation bonds, effectively enhancing the credit willingness of financial institutions and the financing confidence of market entities.

产品体系日益丰富。在政策推动下，科技金融工具箱不断丰富。中国人民银行增加科技创新和技术改造再贷款额度，支持金融机构加大对科技型中小企业、重点领域技术改造和设备更新项目的金融支持力度。推出债券市场“科技板”，允许金融机构、科技型企业、私募股权投资机构和创业投资机构发行科技创新债券，并创设科技创新债券风险分担工具，有效增强金融机构的信贷投放意愿和经营主体的融资信心。

The scale of funds has significantly expanded. As of the end of June this year, the national balance of science and technology loans reached 44.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%, with a growth rate 5.8 percentage points higher than that of all loans in the same period, reflecting the priority and high growth of science and technology credit in financial allocation. The bond market has developed rapidly, with 288 entities issuing approximately 600 billion yuan in scientific and technological innovation bonds. This has broadened the direct financing channels for science and technology-based enterprises and reduced their financing costs, reflecting the further enhancement of the capital market’s support for scientific and technological innovation.

资金规模显著扩大。截至今年6月末，全国科技贷款余额达44.1万亿元，同比增长12.5%，增速比同期全部贷款高出5.8个百分点，体现了科技信贷在金融投向上的优先性和高增长性。债券市场快速发展，已有288家主体发行约6000亿元科技创新债券。这拓宽了科技型企业直接融资渠道，并降低其融资成本，体现出资本市场对科技创新的支持力度进一步增强。

However, it must also be noted that the development of China’s science and technology finance still faces certain challenges. The financing structure is dominated by indirect financing. Bank credit prefers enterprises with sufficient collateral and stable cash flow, while science and technology-based enterprises, especially start-ups, mostly have light assets and immature profit models, making it difficult to meet traditional credit requirements. This leads to the problem that banks “dare not lend” or “do not know how to lend” still being relatively prominent; the vitality of the venture capital market needs to be further stimulated, the degree of marketization and investment efficiency still have room for improvement, the capital structure needs to be further optimized, and the participation of private capital is relatively low; the operational mechanism of government investment funds still needs to be optimized, there is still room for improvement in fund allocation and management processes, and there is a phenomenon of “emphasizing investment over management.”

但也要看到，我国科技金融发展仍面临一定挑战。融资结构以间接融资为主，银行信贷更偏好抵押充足、现金流稳定的企业，而科技型企业特别是初创企业大多轻资产、盈利模式不成熟，难以满足传统信贷要求，导致银行“不敢贷”或“不会贷”问题仍较突出；风险投资市场的活力有待进一步激发，市场化程度和投资效率仍有提升空间，资本结构有待进一步优化，民间资本参与度偏低；政府投资基金的运行机制尚需优化，在资金投向和管理流程上仍有改进空间，还存在“重投轻管”的现象。

Form a highly adaptable financial support mechanism

形成高度适配的金融支持机制

To build a science and technology financial system with Chinese characteristics, it is necessary to accurately grasp the uniqueness of China’s financial structure and industrial ecology. It is necessary to both face up to China’s financial structure, which is dominated by indirect financing led by the banking industry, and actively learn from international experience and promote institutional innovation according to local conditions, forming a financial support mechanism that fits China’s national conditions and adapts to the laws of scientific and technological development.

构建具有中国特色的科技金融体系，应准确把握我国金融结构与产业生态的独特性。既要正视我国以银行业主导的间接融资为主的金融结构，也要积极借鉴国际经验、因地制宜推动机制创新，形成契合中国国情、适应科技发展规律的金融支持机制。

First, give full play to the main channel role of the bank-led indirect financing system. The indirect financing system has played an important role in supporting the real economy and is also compatible with China’s behavioral patterns such as high household savings rates and low risk appetite. 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 the allocation of financial resources, banks have advantages such as large fund scale, wide coverage network, and strong risk control capabilities, and their role is irreplaceable. To build a science and technology financial system with Chinese characteristics, it is not possible to copy the Western model. Instead, on the basis of giving full play to the main channel of indirect financing, it is necessary to promote the comprehensive optimization of indirect financing concepts, mechanisms, products, and risk control to better adapt to the development characteristics of science and technology-based enterprises.

一是充分发挥银行主导的间接融资体系的主渠道作用。间接融资体系在支持实体经济方面发挥了重要作用，也与我国居民储蓄率高、风险偏好低等行为模式相契合。当前我国银行业总资产占金融业机构总资产比重约90%，银行作为金融资源配置主力，具有资金规模大、覆盖网络广、风险控制能力强等优势，其作用不可替代。构建具有中国特色的科技金融体系，不能照搬照抄西方模式，而要在充分发挥间接融资主渠道基础上，推动间接融资理念、机制、产品、风控等全面优化，更好适配科技型企业的发展特征。

Second, enhance banks’ ability to serve scientific and technological innovation. Banks should play a more active role in the science and technology financial system, taking serving scientific and technological innovation as a strategic task and providing full-lifecycle comprehensive financial services for science and technology-based enterprises. It is necessary to closely combine the characteristics and needs of enterprises and continuously develop products suitable for light-asset, high-growth characteristics. Build a comprehensive risk assessment system suitable for science and technology-based enterprises, fully utilize cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, construct a multi-dimensional credit evaluation model based on the enterprise’s scientific and technological capabilities, innovation potential, and market prospects, appropriately increase risk tolerance, and actively explore innovative models such as the inclusion of data assets in the balance sheet.

二是提升银行服务科技创新能力。银行要在科技金融体系中发挥更加积极的作用，以服务科技创新为战略任务，为科技型企业提供全生命周期综合金融服务。需紧密结合企业特性和需求，不断研发适合轻资产、高成长特征的产品。构建适合科技型企业的全面风险评估体系，充分运用人工智能等前沿技术，构建基于企业科技能力、创新潜力和市场前景的多维度信用评估模型，适当提升风险容忍度，积极探索数据资产入表等创新模式。

Third, improve the loan-equity linkage mechanism. Science and technology-based enterprises generally go through development stages such as the seed stage, start-up stage, growth stage, and maturity stage, characterized by high investment risk and long return cycles. Loan-equity linkage is an important way to solve the financing difficulties of science and technology-based enterprises. Banks can, within the framework of policy support and compliance, conduct equity investments by establishing financial asset investment companies to support the development of science and technology-based enterprises. The loan-equity linkage mechanism effectively combines loans with equity investment, allowing banks to enjoy the equity appreciation benefits brought by the rapid growth of enterprises while supporting the cash flow needs of enterprises through loan support, effectively reducing the risk of a single financing method, and achieving long-term win-win development between banks and enterprises.

三是完善投贷联动机制。科技型企业普遍经历种子期、初创期、成长期、成熟期等发展阶段，具有投资风险高、回报周期长等特点。投贷联动是破解科技型企业融资难题的重要途径，银行可在政策支持及合规框架下，通过设立金融资产投资公司的方式，开展股权投资，支持科技型企业发展。投贷联动机制将贷款与股权投资有效结合，既能使银行享受企业快速成长带来的股权增值收益，又可通过贷款支持解决企业现金流需求，有效降低单一融资方式风险，实现银行与企业的长期共赢发展。

Fourth, better leverage the role of government investment funds. Build a more scientific and efficient government investment fund management system, clarify functional positioning, place greater emphasis on medium- to long-term value, develop patient capital, strengthen support for the innovation ecosystem, the industrial system, and the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces, and guide capital toward strategic, leading innovation projects. Adhere to market-based operation, improve governance structures and incentive mechanisms, and enhance post-investment management and industrial coordination levels.

四是更好发挥政府投资基金作用。构建更加科学高效的政府投资基金管理体系，明确功能定位，更加注重中长期价值，发展耐心资本，强化对创新生态、产业体系和培育发展新质生产力的支持，引导资金投向具有战略性、牵引性的创新项目。坚持市场化运作，完善治理结构和激励机制，提升投后管理和产业协同水平。

Fifth, smooth direct financing channels for science and technology enterprises. Continuously advance the construction of a multi-tiered capital market system, deepen reforms of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, the ChiNext Board, and the Beijing Stock Exchange, and smooth financing channels for science and technology enterprises. Encourage the issuance of science and technology innovation bonds, and expand the financing space of the bond market. Improve the information disclosure and credit evaluation mechanisms for science and technology enterprises, and enhance market transparency and resource allocation efficiency. Fully mobilize the initiative of private capital participation, and create a science and technology financial ecosystem with diversified capital input. Draw on the market-based experience of venture capital systems in developed countries, and use means such as tax incentives and fund guidance to encourage private capital to enter the field of scientific and technological innovation. Improve risk compensation mechanisms and exit channels, and enhance the expected returns and risk tolerance of private investment.

五是畅通科技型企业直接融资渠道。持续推进多层次资本市场体系建设，深化科创板、创业板、北交所改革，畅通科技型企业融资渠道。鼓励发行科技创新债券，拓展债券市场融资空间。完善科技型企业信息披露与信用评价机制，提高市场透明度和资源配置效率。充分调动民间资本参与的积极性，打造多元资本投入的科技金融生态。借鉴发达国家风险投资体系市场化经验，通过税收优惠、基金引导等手段，鼓励民间资本进入科技创新领域。完善风险补偿机制和退出通道，提升民间投资回报预期和风险容忍度。

(The author is a specially appointed researcher of the Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and director of the China Banking Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics)

（作者系北京市习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员、中央财经大学中国银行业研究中心主任）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧