The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's new science and technology regulation, covering everything from oil and gas modernization to crop breeding, takes effect Friday, backed by a surge in the region's R&D spending since 2021.
The regulation, approved during the regional legislature's annual session in Urumqi in late January, spans 68 articles across eight chapters. It targets innovation-driven upgrading of traditional industries, including oil, gas, and coal, while also promoting strategic emerging technologies, such as new energy and new materials. It also calls for accelerating the adoption of new crop varieties and agricultural technologies for grain, cotton, fruit, and livestock.
The regional legislative body described it as Xinjiang's first comprehensive regulation on scientific and technological innovation, marking a shift toward institutionalized, law-based development for the region's innovation efforts.
The regulation affirms enterprises as the primary drivers of innovation and encourages them to lead major research projects. It dedicates chapters to basic research and the commercialization of scientific achievements and aims to strengthen basic research capacity and funding, scale up applied research, and speed up outcome transformation, according to Ye Jianxun, deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the standing committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Special attention is given to young talent, female researchers, rural vitalization professionals, and highly skilled workers.
Official data shows that Xinjiang spent 13.85 billion yuan ($2.02 billion) on research and development in 2024, marking a 76.9 percent increase compared to 2021. The ratio of R&D expenditure to regional GDP rose to 0.67 percent. Fiscal spending on science and technology hit 8.76 billion yuan, up 104 percent over 2021. As of 2025, the number of high-tech enterprises in the region exceeded 3,200, which is 3.4 times the 2021 figure.
Zhao Wei, deputy director of the region's department of science and technology, said Xinjiang now has 71,000 R&D personnel. The region has established a joint fund with the National Natural Science Foundation of China, seeded with 30 million yuan, and raised its top science award from 500,000 yuan to 1 million yuan per recipient.
