China, Japan and South Korea occupy top spots in global index of scientific innovation

Three Chinese science and technology clusters have made the top five in a global innovation index, behind Japan but ahead of the United States.

This year all of the top five sci-tech clusters are located in East Asia, while China has the highest number of clusters – 24 – in the top 100 in pre-release of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s global innovation index. This moves it ahead of the US, which has 21.

The WIPO, a United Nations agency, published the index, which is based on the numbers of inventors and researchers in the clusters, as well as the number of articles published and patents filed.

This year, Seoul moved up a spot to third place, overtaking Beijing, while the Suzhou-Shanghai cluster moved up to fifth place, swapping places with San Jose-San Francisco in California.

The WIPO said Suzhou-Shanghai had moved up primarily due to the increase in filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which offers protection in more than 150 countries.

According to the State Council Information Office, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster accounted for 8.2 per cent of global PCT applications last year, and 1.9 per cent of scientific paper publications. Beijing held the top global position in scientific paper publications at 3.7 per cent.

In comparison, the Tokyo-Yokohama cluster accounted for almost 11 per cent of PCT applications, and 1.6 per cent of scientific paper publications.

China’s small app developers fear innovation being stifled by Beijing’s new rule

Daren Tang, the director general of WIPO, said that sci-tech clusters are “among the most-critical components for the innovation performance of any economy”.

This year, China had the largest increase in scientific-technological output with a median increase of 12.1 per cent. The Hefei and Qingdao clusters experienced the fastest global growth at 21.6 and 19.4 per cent respectively.

Other middle-income economies like India also experienced strong growth, while almost 40 per cent of high-income economies saw their output fall.

However, China still does not rank within the top 10 for sci-tech intensity, which also accounts for population. Most of the top clusters by this measure are located in Europe and the US.

Shanghai expands virtual asset trading to create US$69 billion market by 2025

By this measure, Dajeon in South Korea has the highest ranking in Asia in sixth place, while Beijing is China’s top ranked place at 14th. Cambridge in Britain occupied the top spot.

On September 27, WIPO will release its full global innovation index that takes into account all of its indicators.

Last year, WIPO said that China was “nearing the top 10” as it reached 11th place, with Switzerland, the US and Britain occupying the top three spots.