Source: China IP News

"China's progress in innovation is impressive, and it's the only country where the innovation index continues to climb." On July 10th, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the 2018 Global Innovation Index Report (GII), and the report showed that China rose to the world's most innovative top 20 economies, ranking 17th. In response to this, Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, Director of Comprehensive Indicators Research Division under WIPO Economics and Statistics Department, siad above.

"Just as I saw during my visits to China, China's innovation is shifting from quantitative growth to quality improvement. This transformation is increasingly recognized by the international community," Sacha Wunsch-Vincent indicated that China has not only climbed continuously in the comprehensive ranking, but also has had a good performance in terms of input sub-index, output sub-index and benefit sub-index, among which in single indicators such as innovation benefits, original industrial design and creative product export as well as knowledge and technology output, China has come out on top and thus has become one of the global innovation leaders. 

This year's report evaluated and ranked 126 economies based on 80 indicators in seven categories, including institution, human capital and research, infrastructure, market maturity, business maturity, knowledge and technology output, and creative output. According to the report, with respect to absolute value, China ranks first or second in the world in terms of R&D expenditure, number of scientific and technical workers and R&D personnel, number of patent applications, and number of academic papers published, exceeding most high-income economies; Global R&D companies, high-tech exports, scientific publications, and higher education enrollment have also seen significant improvements. At the same time, Shenzhen-Hong Kong ranked second in the global innovation clusters with Beijing ranking fifth. China boasted the world's second largest innovation clusters with 16 innovation ones.

"From the perspective of the GII report, China is expected to achieve the goal of 'being listed in innovative countries by 2020' proposed by the National Innovation Driven Development Strategy Outline." As one of the authors of the report, Chen Dongmin, director of GII research center of Industrial Technology, Peking University, pointed out that in recent years, by implementing a national intellectual property strategy and introducing a series of policy measures, China has seen a better innovation atmosphere, improved innovation quality and balanced development of innovation system. "In the past few years, the Chinese government has made a lot of optimization and adjustment in opening up, personnel training, and intellectual property protection. With the further implementation of these measures, China will do better with respect to all indicators." Chen Dongmin added.

“China's rapid rise reflected a strategic direction set from the top leadership to developing world-class capacity in innovation and to moving the structural basis of the economy to more knowledge-intensive industries that rely on innovation to maintain competitive advantage," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry has high expectations for China's innovation prospects.