China has hit a historical high in research and development (R&D) investment over the last year, with a total amount of 1.57 trillion RMB, said a statement recently issued by the country’s statistics authority.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the figure was up 10.6% compared with that a year ago, growing 1.7% faster.

China’s innovation index of 2016 stood at 181.2, increasing 5.7% year on year. And the transaction volume of the technology market has exceeded 1 trillion RMB for the first time.

Guan Xiaojing, a senior NBS statistician, said that it is the first pickup in the R&D investment growth since 2012, and also the first double-digit growth since 2014.

China has been enhancing R&D investment in recent years and gradually narrowing its gap with developed countries.

In addition, the country has seen an optimized structure of its R&D investment. According to research, 5.2% of the total investment went to fundamental research, the highest in the past decade. Investment in high-tech manufacturing has also increased by 11% to 291.57 billion RMB, 1.4% higher than that in the general manufacturing sector.

The increased R&D investment is partly a result of optimized government guidance and the policy environment. In 2016, the country spent 776.1 billion RMB on technology development, growing 10.8% year on year, the highest in the past four years.