(Yicai) Sept. 27 -- China came 11th in the Global Innovation Index this year, maintaining its spot as the only middle-income economy in the top 30. It also had the most science and technology clusters for the second straight year.

China's growing strengths in various innovation indicators were highlighted this year, according to the list the World Intellectual Property Organization released yesterday. The country ranks first in eight indicators, including Utility models, Trademarks, and Industrial designs, only behind Singapore and the United States.

The GII 2024 includes three categories and 78 sub-divided indicators, such as business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, human capital and research, to comprehensively evaluate and rank the performance of the innovative ecological systems of 133 economies. China was 12th last year.

China ranks first in high-tech exports, second in global corporate research and development investors, second in labor productivity growth, and third in gross expenditure on R&D financed by business.

In addition, China boasted 26 science and technology clusters in the top 100, followed by the US with 20 and Germany with eight. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster kept its second position behind Tokyo-Yokohama, while Beijing reclaimed the third spot from Seoul.

Shanghai-Suzhou rounds out the top five, mainly thanks to strong growth in Patent Cooperation Treaty filings. Nanjing climbed two spots to enter the top 10, displacing San Diego.

China has made significant progress in building its IP and innovation ecosystem, Daren Tang, director general of WIPO, previously said in an interview with Yicai. It has become the largest contributor to global IPs, with its filings exceeding the combined total of all other countries, he added.

China is also home to the two fastest-growing science and technology clusters, with Hefei growing at 22.7 percent and Zhengzhou at 18.9 percent. In addition, Nanchang in Jiangxi province, Kunming in Yunnan province, and the Macau Special Administrative Region-Zhuhai cluster entered the top 100 for the first time.

China's R&D expenditure surged 233-fold to CNY3.33 trillion (USD474.5 billion) last year from 1991, second only to the US, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The intensity of R&D investment (R&D spending to gross domestic product) climbed to 2.64 percent from 0.6 in the period, ranking 12th globally and narrowing the gap with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, which stands at 2.7 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev