By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Sep 26 -- China ranks first with 24 science and technology clusters in the world, overtaking the US for the first time with 21 clusters, in the top 100 science and technology clusters released by World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO)’s Global Innovation Index (GII) on September 20.

Among the top 100, Tokyo–Yokohama (Japan) is the top performing cluster, followed by Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China), Seoul (Republic of Korea),

Beijing (China) and Shanghai–Suzhou (China).

The highest climbers in the ranking are three clusters in China, namely, Zhenjiang (+15 positions) in Jiangsu Province, Hefei (+13) in Anhui Province, and Wuxi (+13) in Jiangsu Province. Following significant growth, Wuxi and Zhenjiang, together with another Chinese cluster, Fuzhou (+8 positions) in Fujian Province, entered the top 100 for the first time, according to WIPO.

It is clusters in China that have recorded the largest increases in science and technology output in 2023, the median increase equating to +12.1 percent, with that economy hosting the two fastest growing clusters globally – Hefei (+21.6 percent) and Qingdao (+19.4 percent) in Shandong Province.

Zhang Guangjun, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology in China, said that the Chinese government attaches great importance to scientific and technological development and regards innovation as the first driving force for development at the 2023 Top Science and Technology Clusters High-Level Roundtable, co-sponsored by the Ministry and WIPO and held in Beijing on September 21.