Recognizing the increasingly important role technology has played in recent years, especially during the fight against COVID-19, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co Ltd will increase its investment in the area in the coming years to benefit more people, said a senior company official.

Ericson Chan, chief executive officer of Ping An Technology, the technology arm of Ping An Group, said Ping An invested a total of 50 billion yuan (US$7.07 billion) in technology in the past 10 years, and its investment will continue to grow this year.

"Ping An Group always lays emphasis on research and development. It is a rule of thumb for the company to spend 1 percent of our revenue on R&D. As our revenue continues to grow, we will continue to spend more," he said.

Ping An Group always lays emphasis on research and development. It is a rule of thumb for the company to spend 1 percent of our revenue on R&D. As our revenue continues to grow, we will continue to spend more

Ericson Chan, Chief executive officer of Ping An Technology

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Specifically, Chan said the investment will be centered on finance, healthcare and smart cities, which have proved to be essential areas during the fight against the epidemic.

During this special period, Ping An's AskBob－an artificial intelligence-enabled consultation platform－offers free information services such as health self-checks, epidemic Q&A, psychological self-assessment and contagion community search. Its epidemic management system－another new product developed by the company－dynamically tracks pandemic information to assist local governments in decision-making for contagion prevention and control.

"Technology has played a crucial role during the fight against the epidemic. Currently, we have 516 million users online. We will step up efforts in R&D to bring about more advanced technologies to benefit more consumers, corporates, governments and the entire industry," Chan said.

On April 7, the World Intellectual Property Organization released its yearly review on global patent applicants. Ping An Technology ranked eighth with a total of 1,691 international applications filed under the WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty.

In 2019, China submitted 58,990 patent applications, surpassing the United States, which submitted 57,840, to become the top source of patent applications. Rounding out the remaining top 10 countries in terms of patent applications are Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, according to the WIPO.

Data from the Ministry of Science and Technology showed that in 2018, the country's R&D expenditure totaled nearly 2 trillion yuan.

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Yin Fenglin, an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Management under the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "Intellectual property is an important index of technology innovation. Judging from the ratio of the country's number of patent applications in the world's total, China is worthy of the name of a large IP country, and it is undergoing the transition to an IP power."

The fight against COVID-19 has accelerated the transition, boosting China's innovation vitality and scientific research strength, Yin said.

Ever since the novel coronavirus outbreak, the central authorities have issued a series of action plans on digital technology-based "new infrastructure" projects, accelerating the construction of 5G, AI, the internet of things, remote healthcare and smart manufacturing.