China's Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou remains world's biggest innovation cluster: report

China's Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster remained the world's leading innovation cluster for the second consecutive year, according to a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Tuesday.

China, with 25 of the world's top 100 innovation clusters, including Beijing in fifth place and the Shanghai-Suzhou cluster in sixth, maintained its position as the economy with the largest number of listed clusters for the fourth consecutive year, said the report.

The Global Innovation Index cluster initiative maps cities and regions that bring together universities, researchers, inventors, venture capital and R&D activities, helping policymakers and business leaders create conditions for innovation to flourish.

China and the United States, with 20 clusters, together account for nearly half of the world's top 100 innovation clusters. Germany follows with seven, while India and the United Kingdom have four each.

Apart from China and India, six other middle-income economies are represented in the top 100: Brazil (Sao Paulo), Egypt (Cairo), Iran (Tehran), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Mexico (Mexico City) and Türkiye (Istanbul).

"Chinese clusters now carry a large part of global innovation activity, and their trajectory matters for three reasons: scale, speed and direction," Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, head of the Composite Indicator Research Section of WIPO, told Xinhua.

"The world's leading clusters are building blocks of national innovation ecosystems and show the importance of strong connections among research, enterprise, talent and investment. Their spread across regions reflects the increasing capacity of economies to translate innovation into economic and social impact," said WIPO Director General Daren Tang.