On September 2, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index 2020 (GII). China ranked 14th, unchanged from last year, and remained a global leader in some indicators.
According to the newly released index, the top 10 are Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Singapore, Germany and South Korea. At 14th place, China remains the only middle-income economy in the top 30.
On the two core indicators of innovation input and output, China's performance this year is as good as the last year's rank. With the 26th rank of China's innovation output, it creates the sixth output of innovation. This result is comparable to high-income economies such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
GII shows that as Asian economies such as China have made significant progress in the innovation ranking year by year, the innovation core area has gradually moved eastward. "The relentless pursuit of innovation pays off over time, as China, India and Vietnam have shown." "GII has been used by these and other governments around the world to improve their innovation performance," says Sumitra Dutta, a former Dean and Professor of Management at Cornell University.
China continues to lead the world in intellectual property rights indicators such as patents, trademarks and industrial product designs, and ranks among the world's top three in productivity growth, creative product exports and other indicators. At the same time, China has moved up the rankings in terms of Research and Design investment and market maturity. In terms of global brand value, China exceeded expectations, ranking 17th. Among the world's 5,000 leading brands, 408 are from China, with a total value of $16 trillion. Nine of them are among the world's top 25 brands.
It is worth noting that China has ranked first in the Quality of Innovation among middle-income economies for eight consecutive years. China ranks the third in terms of the quality of its institutions of tertiary education, with Tsinghua, Peking and Fudan among the world's top 50 universities. When it comes to the internationalization of innovation, China also performed well: patents of the same ethnicity accounted for 10 per cent of China's innovation quality score, well above the average of 4 per cent in middle-income economies. Seventeen of the world's top technology clusters are located in China, and the country is expected to continue to lead emerging and developing economies in bridging the world's innovation gap.
At present, the global COVID-19 epidemic is still severe, leading to global economic stagnation and affecting investment in innovation. The report believes that all parties should take actions to promote innovation during the transition to recovery. WIPO Director-General Francis Gurry said the rapid global spread of COVID-19 requires the world to face up to its challenges with innovative thinking and win together. Governments need to look to the future and come up with aid packages that support individuals, research institutions, businesses and other innovative and cooperative ideas for the post-epidemic era to address the social and economic impact of the epidemic.
Industry analysis, for two consecutive years ranked GII 14th, shows China support high-quality development of important achievements in innovation, fully embodies that China continuously improve the system of intellectual property rights in recent years. China strengthen intellectual property creation, protection, utilization, and create a good environment for doing business and innovation, continue to encourage innovation input and output, promote the economic development of high quality made outstanding achievements, and helping boost confidence in China's international society.
The GII, jointly launched by WIPO, Cornell University and INSEAD, aims to help global policymakers better formulate policies and promote innovation through quantitative indicators.
