Lately, eight authorities, including the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), have jointly distributed the Opinions on Promoting the Demonstrative Application of the First (Set of) Major Technical Equipment (the "Opinions").
The Opinions expressly state that, by 2025, the overall competence of major technical equipment will be basically improved to the internationally advanced level and be powerful enough to meet needs of economic development and national security. To this end, the Opinions set out a series of tasks, such as "improving the research, development and innovation system for major technical equipment", "creating the demonstrative application system for the first (set of) technical equipment", "promoting the integrated development of dual-use technologies and equipment for both civilian and military ends", "strengthening the application and protection of intellectual property rights of the first (set of) major technical equipment" and "providing clearer tax policy guidance". In particular, the Opinions stress the need to optimize the layout of intellectual property rights, adding that applications for core and critical patents for the first (set of) technical equipment shall be examined first according to the law. Meanwhile, enterprises that engage in research, development and manufacturing of major technical equipment will be allowed to enjoy the super-deduction of R&D expenses before calculating the enterprise income tax according to the existing preferential tax policies, and they will be subject to enterprise income tax levied at a reduced rate of 15 percent if they are labeled as high-tech firms.