The World Intellectual Property Organization released 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII) on September 2. Nanjing ranked 21st globally and 6th in China, only behind Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai.

The Global Innovation Index ranks 131 economies in order of their innovation strengths. As the only middle-income economic entity among the top 30, China ranks 14th this year, consistent with last year. Generally speaking, the top 15 in the ranking are considered as innovative countries.

The report ranks the hot “innovation clusters” of the global economic entities and lists the top 100 based on the scores. With a total of 17 innovation clusters on the list, China boasts large numbers of innovation clusters, only second to the United States.

The GII report is jointly released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations, Cornell University, and INSEAD. The report, altogether 13 issues released since 2007, is hailed as key indicator of global economic innovation and creation and as significant reference for economic policy-making. A strong positive correlation exists, according to the analysis, between the distribution of innovation clusters and the economic development hot-spots.