According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, China currently ranks among the top 100 science and technology clusters in the world, with 26 of them, reflecting the rapid growth of the country’s innovation output.
This year’s WIPO Global Innovation Index, released on Monday, shows China has two more clusters than last year, overtaking the United States and Germany. The index found that seven of the top 10 clusters are in Asia and three are in the United States.
The world’s largest cluster is Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan, followed by the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster in China. Beijing has improved by one place compared to last year and is now in third place.
The report highlighted that clusters in middle-income economies experienced the strongest growth in science and technology, with Chinese clusters showing the largest increases, particularly in Hefei in Anhui province and Zhengzhou in Henan province.
“Science and technology clusters form the foundation of robust national innovation ecosystems,” said WIPO Director General Daren Tang. “It is encouraging to see that these clusters are flourishing not only in the mature centers of developed nations, but also in the emerging innovation hotspots of selected developing countries.”
Tang added that WIPO will continue to support clusters in leveraging intellectual property to translate research into practical solutions.
The WIPO Global Innovation Index evaluates countries and economies based on the development and performance of their clusters.
Guo Wen, spokeswoman for China’s National Intellectual Property Administration, stressed the important role of the central region, which includes Henan and Anhui, in China’s high-quality development, pointing to its unique geographical advantages and broad market potential.
She said IP services in the region have made progress in recent years. As of June, the region held 618,000 valid invention patents, up 19 percent from the same period last year, and had registered over 7 million trademarks, up 11 percent from the previous year.
Henan has also launched projects to strengthen intellectual property rights in key industries and set up two national IP operation centers for alternative energy-based auto parts and organic farming, said Liu Huaizhang, an official with the provincial IP office.
In recent years, China has put science and technology first and emphasized innovation as the main driving force of development. The country has promoted major regional strategies such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. It has also supported the efforts of Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to build internationally influential science and technology innovation centers.
Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Guangjun said last year that China would like to continue its cooperation with international organizations such as WIPO to address global challenges by promoting technological creativity and strengthening innovation, application, management and protection of intellectual property.