Hong Kong has ascended to 15th place—a three-position leap—in the Global Innovation Index (GII) among 139 economies, securing 5th position within the Asia region.
The ranking, released on Tuesday (Sep 16) by the World Intellectual Property Organization, indicates that Hong Kong ranks 8th globally in the "Innovation Input" sub-index.
The city outperformed the high-income group averages across all five pillars within the sub-index, achieving a commendable 2nd place in "Market Sophistication" and 8th in "Institutions."
Notably, Hong Kong led the rankings in the "Credit" sub-pillar and positioned itself among the global top 10 in several key areas -- ranking 3rd in "Tertiary Education," 5th in "Knowledge Absorption," 6th in "Information and Communication Technology (ICT)," and 9th in both "Institutional Environment" and "Investment."
Data reveal that Hong Kong's gross expenditure on research and development (R&D) and the number of researchers have both continued to increase.
In terms of the "Innovation Output" sub-index, Hong Kong advanced nine places to attain 22nd position globally. Within the "Knowledge and Technology Outputs" pillar, the city experienced a significant rise of 28 places, reaching 30th position.
The city ranked 17th globally in the "Creative Outputs" pillar and 7th in "Creative Goods and Services," with other relevant sub-pillars also reflecting strong global performance.
Data also showed that Hong Kong's number of patents and high-tech manufacturing output continued to increase.
In response to the Index, the government expressed satisfaction with Hong Kong's progress, highlighting the acceleration of innovation and technology development as a key policy priority.
"Hong Kong's leading rankings in the 'Credit', 'Investment', 'Tertiary Education' and 'Knowledge Absorption' sub-pillars fully demonstrate that Hong Kong is well positioned to continuously advance in innovation," the statement added.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po remarked that the ranking underscores the effectiveness of Hong Kong's strategy in promoting the complementary relationship between finance and innovation and technology.
He noted that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou group has been recognized as the top performer among the GII top 100 innovation clusters earlier this month, and the cities will further enhance the Greater Bay Area as a world-class international innovation and technology hub.
The leading five economies in the GII ranking are Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Korea, and Singapore, with China positioned at 10th place.
GII is a ranking of the innovation capabilities and achievements of economies around the world. Its evaluation criteria cover multiple aspects, including institutions, human capital and research infrastructure, credit, investment, collaboration, knowledge creation, absorption and diffusion, and creative outputs.
