Ministry of Finance: Leveraging More Social Capital and Financial Resources to Drive Investment in Technological Innovation

Securities Times Reporter He Jueyuan

On March 17, the Ministry of Finance released the “2025 China Fiscal Policy Implementation Report” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”), which states that 2026 is the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan.” The Ministry of Finance will continue to implement more proactive fiscal policies, enhancing precision and effectiveness, optimizing incremental growth, revitalizing existing resources, focusing on expanding domestic demand, improving structural quality, increasing driving forces, and benefiting people’s livelihoods. It will also prioritize stabilizing employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations, promoting reforms, strengthening management, preventing risks, and increasing efficiency to achieve qualitative improvements and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy.

The “Report” points out that in 2026, a more proactive fiscal policy will continue to be implemented, mainly reflected in five aspects: first, expanding the scope of fiscal expenditure to ensure necessary spending; second, optimizing the mix of government bond tools to better leverage bond benefits; third, improving the efficiency of transfer payments to enhance local autonomous financial resources; fourth, continuously optimizing the expenditure structure and strengthening support in key areas; fifth, strengthening fiscal and financial coordination to amplify policy effects and better stimulate the vitality of micro-entities.

To support the development of a strong domestic market, the Ministry of Finance will continue to allocate ultra-long-term special national bonds for “dual” construction projects and “two new” initiatives, and optimize policy implementation. It will implement a comprehensive set of fiscal and financial coordination policies to boost domestic demand, focusing on stimulating private investment and promoting resident consumption, supporting reductions in corporate financing costs, enhancing residents’ consumption capacity, and expanding the supply of high-quality services.

To accelerate high-level technological independence and self-reliance, the Ministry of Finance will continue to increase investment, improve diversified mechanisms for technological innovation funding, and leverage more social capital and financial resources into technological innovation. It will optimize the structure of science and technology expenditure, further focusing on basic research, applied basic research, and national strategic technological tasks to stimulate innovation and creative vitality.

To strengthen保障 and improve people’s livelihoods, the Ministry of Finance will enhance employment support, stabilize and expand employment for key groups. It will further increase fiscal investment in education, implement policies for gradually providing free preschool education, and ensure the implementation of student financial aid policies. It will raise the per capita fiscal subsidy standard for urban and rural residents’ basic medical insurance, improve healthcare service capacity and保障水平, and完善社会保障体系, increasing basic pensions for urban and rural residents.

To strengthen fiscal management, the Ministry of Finance will deepen reforms of the fiscal and tax system, accelerate the formulation and issuance of opinions on improving the budget system; advance pilot programs for scientific fiscal management; further expand the scope of zero-based budgeting reforms in central departments; accelerate the construction of expenditure standard systems;完善地方税体系; optimize transfer payment structures; improve transfer payment management; strengthen fund integration and coordination, and better meet local needs.