Science and technology
The province developed a mid-to-long-term plan for scientific and technological development, in 2012, with spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP up 1.17 percent. It also had 10 major science and technology projects and 403 major technological innovation projects and pushed technology and products with their own intellectual property rights. These included 10-million-ton fully-mechanized coal mining equipment, coal-based fuel oil, and new-generation laser display products. The province’s organizations filed 16,786 patent applications, in 2012, up 31.4 percent and got 7,237 patents, up 45.5 percent. They also registered 436 new scientific and technological developments and got 9 State science and technology awards. The province had 337 technological centers at the provincial level or higher, 22 of which were national enterprise technology centers and 155, provincial enterprise technology centers.
Education
The province followed a national and provincial mid-to-long-term education development plan and spending on education accounted for more than 4 percent of its GDP. It spent 10 billion yuan on new college and university campuses, with work completed on about 667 hectares, for new campus areas that can cater to 150,000 students. By the end of 2012, it had 67 colleges and universities, 13 adult education schools, 26,000 graduate students, and 637,000 students in general institutions of higher learning.
