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China Technology Markets and Joint Ventures
Commercializing technology requires markets, and China in the
late 1980s had to develop market institutions to handle patents,
the sale of technology, and consulting contracts. This was a major
endeavor and one that promised to take many years. Deciding how to
set prices for technology and how to write and enforce contracts
for technical consulting proved difficult, largely because of the
complexity of technology markets. Further, China lacked the legal
and commercial frameworks to support such markets. Nevertheless,
institutes and factories participated in "technology fairs" and
established contractual relations in great numbers, with the total
technology trade volume in 1986 reaching an estimated -Y2.3
billion. Research institutes and universities formed companies to
sell technical services and develop products. Even the formerly
self-contained Chinese Academy of Sciences set up companies to
export specialty magnets and to develop optical products.
In the late 1980s, China's technology markets and efforts to
commercialize scientific and technical knowledge were growing
rapidly amid considerable confusion, ferment, and turmoil. Although
progressing, the commercialization of technology was proving
difficult to implement, and, perhaps for this reason, the State
Council announced in February 1987 that most applied scientific
research institutes were to be incorporated into large and mediumsized productive enterprises to coordinate research with the needs
of production. The precise form the technology market would
eventually take was not clear, but its development had wide support
and was not likely to be halted or reversed.
Data as of July 1987
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