China ahead of Singapore in innovation index
China moved up one place to 14th in a global ranking of national innovation ability last year, ahead of Singapore which fell four places to 15th, accounting to the National Innovation Index Report.
The report studies national innovation ability of 40 major countries by assessing five indicators – innovation resources, knowledge creation, business innovation, innovation performance and entrepreneurship environment.
It was released by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development at the Result Release Conference of the 2021 Pujiang Innovation Forum on Thursday.
The US took first place with Japan second and South Korea third. The other countries in the top 15, apart from Israel (8th), China and Singapore, were in Europe.
The report said the innovative status of China, the only developing country in the top 15, is very close to developed European countries with a per capita GDP of around US$50,000.
In 2018, China's R&D spending reached nearly US$300 billion, accounting for 17.5 percent of the world's total and ranking second place. It was the only middle-income country whose R&D spending accounted for more than 2 percent of GDP.
China advanced in innovation resources and entrepreneurship environment, up one spot from the year before. Its rankings in knowledge creation, business innovation and innovation performance remained unchanged.
