China's strength in innovation gains growing recognition

As the first middle-income country to rank among the world's 25 most innovative economies in the Global Innovation Index 2016 released last week, China's strength in innovation has been recognized in the international community, experts said.

The report, jointly released by Cornell University, the graduate business school INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, shows China's marked progress in innovation from a third party perspective, Li Shunde, deputy director of the Intellectual Property Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily.

China ranked 25th, up four positions from a year ago. It stands in 17th place in innovation quality, a top-level indicator that looks at the caliber of local universities, number of scientific publications and international patent filings of a nation.

Behind its high ranking are the country's top scores in such indicators as patent application, high-tech exports, global research and development companies, domestic market scale, research talent in business enterprises and industrial designs.

"The results reflect that our country's long-term efforts to increase its R&D investments have paid of," Li said.

China became the second largest country in terms of R&D expenditure last year, with some 2.1 percent of its GDP spent on research. The share is expected to increase to 2.5 percent in 2020, Cai Fang, vice-president of CASS, China's leading think tank, said in an earlier interview.

Of the total R&D spending in China last year, more than 77 percent was from the business community, Wan Gang, minister of science and technology, told the media in March.

As companies increase their expenditure on technology innovation, more government investments can be channeled into primary and frontier sciences, charities and other priority sectors listed in national strategies, Wan said.

China is forecast to be the world's top R&D spender by 2019, according to a report on the global state of science, technology and industry released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2014.

"Investing in innovation is critical to raising long-term economic growth," said Francis Gurry, director general of WIPO.

"In this current economic climate, uncovering new sources of growth and leveraging the opportunities raised by global innovation are priorities for all stakeholders," he added.

The GII report found that innovation has remained a key priority, supported by a steady flow of R&D spending, whether in countries that have been repeatedly part of the top 25 in the annual rankings - or in those nations that made continuous and rapid progress, such as China.

Deputy director Li said an innovation-friendly legal and policy environment and stringent IP protection are also key to ensure sustainable investments in R&D.

The Chinese government released a national IP strategy in 2008 and set a goal at the end of 2014 to develop China into a strong IP powerhouse. The moves have spurred growth in annual patent, trademark and copyright filings in the country.

"In addition to motivation for innovation and IP protection, the commercialization and industrialization of research results are also an indispensable part (of the strategy)," Li said.

The State Council, China's cabinet, has recently issued a policy to advance the law on promoting the industrialization of research results, encourage mass innovation and entrepreneurship and create a favorable climate for efficient innovations.

China has been a consistent performer in both innovation inputs and outputs over the past five years, and has made substantial improvements in both this year, according to the GII report.

At the pillar level, the country has shown its best performance in knowledge and technology outputs so far, according to the report.

Li said that in comparison to other economic indicators, such as GDP, international trade and foreign investment, "China still has enormous growth potential for its innovation".