(Yicai Global) Sept. 30 -- China came 11th in this year’s Global Innovation Index, having scaled the ranks for the 10th consecutive year, overtaking France and putting it on track to enter the top 10.

China’s innovation and development have shown a positive relationship as innovation-related investment has translated into more high-quality innovative outputs, according to the list the World Intellectual Property Organization released yesterday. China was 12th last year.

“China continues its ascent toward the top 10,” the WIPO said in its report.

The top five in 2022 were Switzerland, for the 12th year in a row, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

The Global Innovation Index includes seven categories and 81 sub-divided indicators, such as policy-related environment, human capital, and research from the innovation-relevant investment and corresponding output points of view, to comprehensively evaluate and rank the performance of the innovative ecological systems of 132 economies.

China ranked first in nine sub-divided indicators this year. In terms of innovation-related investment, China was No. 1 in three areas: market size, proportion of companies that offer standard training sessions, and the key subjects of reading, mathematics, and science in the Programme for International Student Assessment.

For innovation-related output, China earned the first slot in six sub-indicators: number of patents, growth of labor output, share of innovative product exports to total trade value, and utility models, industrial designs, and trademarks applied by locals.  

Last year, Chinese brands’ were worth was USD1.9 trillion, up 7 percent from the previous year to rank 18th worldwide. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China topped the banking sector list, and Huawei Technologies ranked second in the technology sector, according to the report.

China swelled the number of its top technology clusters to 21 this year from 19 in 2021 to equal the US. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou region and Beijing are the second and third tech clusters globally. The Tokyo-Yokohama region remains the world’s biggest, with Seoul and the San Jose-San Francisco region ranking fourth and fifth.

The Global Innovation Index added the technology clusters section in 2017. It measures a cluster’s technological output and quality of innovation from the number of Patent Cooperation Treaty applications and scientific publications.

Editor: Futura Costaglione