Country joins list of elite global innovators, but gaps still remain

China has joined the ranks of the world's 25 most-innovative economies, according to the Global Innovation Index 2016 released in Geneva on Monday.

It marks the first time a middle-income country has joined the highly developed economies that have historically dominated the top of the GII throughout its nine years.

The GII, which surveys the innovation capacity of more than 100 countries across the world, is jointly released by Cornell University, INSEAD, which is one of the world's leading business graduate schools, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, compares the performance of national innovation systems across economies.

This year's report covers 128 economies that represent more than 92 percent of the world's population and nearly 98 percent of the world's GDP.

China is ranked 25th, up four positions from a year ago. This move is partly driven by the country's innovation performance, according to the report.

The country now 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, narrowing the distance with the world's high-income economies.

China's innovation quality scores are the only ones among the middle-income group of countries that display a balance similar to that of high-income economies, the report shows.

The growth illustrated by the report shows that China now leads the middle-income economies for this indicator, followed by India, which has now overtaken Brazil.

Despite China's rise, an "innovation divide" persists between developed and developing countries amid an increasing awareness among policymakers that fostering innovation is crucial for vibrant, competitive economies, according to WIPO.

Switzerland leads the rankings for the sixth consecutive year, but among the GII 2016 leaders, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom stand out for their innovation quality.

"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."

Before 2009, worldwide research and development expenditure grew at an annual rate of approximately 7 percent. GII 2016 data indicate that global R&D grew by 4 percent in 2014.

More efforts are needed to return to pre-crisis R&D growth levels and to counteract the apparent R&D expenditure slowdown in 2014, which was caused by both slower growth in China and other emerging economies and tighter R&D budgets in high-income economies, the report said.

The report found that even leading emerging countries, including China, still spend only a small share of their research budget on basic R&D, as they focus instead on applied R&D and development.

A multi-polar world of research and innovation has emerged and the majority of activities are still concentrated in high-income economies and select middle-income economies such as Brazil, China, India and South Africa.

The report shows that only China has seen its R&D expenditures or other innovation input and output metrics move closer to high-income countries such as the US. Other middle-income economies remain distant.

Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Cornell College of Business and co-editor of the report, pointed out: "Investing in improving innovation quality is essential for closing the innovation divide.

"While institutions create an essential supportive framework for doing so, economies need to focus on reforming education and growing their research capabilities to compete successfully in a rapidly changing globalized world."

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/17/2016 page17)