A view of Huairou Science City. (PHOTO: VCG)

By CHEN Chunyou

In 2023, China's comprehensive ranking of innovation capability has risen to the 10th place, up three places from 2022 — the only developing country to enter the top 15, according to the National Innovation Index Report 2022-2023, released by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED) on November 21.

The report selected 40 countries as the object of evaluation, which together account for more than 95 percent of the world's R&D investment and more than 85 percent of the global GDP, establishing an evaluation index system including the five aspects of innovation resources, knowledge creation, enterprise innovation, innovation performance and innovation environment.

According to the report, China's National Innovation Index score is 72.7, 1.9 points higher than that in 2022, and the gap with the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany, has further narrowed.

Xuan Zhaohui, a researcher of CASTED, said all the progress is thanks to China's continuously increased investment in innovation resources in recent years, which leads to enhanced knowledge output capacity, and improved enterprises' innovation capacity and innovation environment.

China scored 61.1 points in terms of innovation resources, ranking 21st. In aspect of government's support for innovation, China is still among the top in the world, with innovation environment scoring 77.1, ranking 23rd, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the country's knowledge creation score is 83.7, ranking third. The number of highly cited papers in 2020 alone was 37,000, accounting for 23 percent of the world's share.

Innovation performance scored 54.5 points, ranking 17th. In 2020, China's high-tech industry exports accounted for 34 percent of the world, ranking first.

"The data shows that China's knowledge creation performance is outstanding, and the innovation ability of enterprises is constantly improving," said Xuan. "China needs to further increase the investment intensity of innovation resources, deepen the reform of science and technology system, and optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship environment, in order to improve the overall performance of the national innovation system, and better support the high-quality development of the country," added Xuan.

Moreover, the report noted that the geography of global innovation has not changed much. East Asia, North America and Europe continue to lead the global innovation landscape, with a strengthened eastward innovation shift.

In addition, China's innovation capabilities significantly exceed countries at the same level of economic development, according to the report.

In terms of GDP per capita indicators, middle- and high-income countries at a similar stage of development to China include Russia, Mexico, Turkey and Argentina. China's GDP per capita is relatively low, but its overall performance in innovation capacity is much higher than that of other countries, becoming the only middle-income country with an R&D investment intensity of more than two percent, according to the report.