BEIJING — China’s spending on research and development (R&D) increased to 2.18 percent of its GDP last year, up by 0.06 percentage points, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China spent over 1.96 trillion yuan (about $293 billion) on R&D in 2018, up 11.6 percent compared with that in 2017, according to the NBS.

The number of patent applications saw a year-on-year increase of 16.9 percent last year, amounting to 4.32 million home and abroad.

According to the Global Innovation Index, China’s global ranking in terms of innovation jumped from the 22nd in 2017 to 17th in 2018.