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WIPO head hails China's innovation performance as outstanding

Xinhua, September 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's performance in innovation is outstanding, Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), told Xinhua in London on Thursday.

"China is undergoing a major transformation from labored in China to Created in China," Gurry said at the global launch of the eighth edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) held in central London.

The GII, co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), surveys 141 economies around the world, using 79 indicators to gauge both innovative capabilities and measurable results.

"Innovation holds far-reaching promise for spurring economic growth in countries at all stages of development. However, realising this promise is not automatic," said Gurry.

"Each nation must find the right mix of policies to mobilise the innate innovative and creative potential in their economies."

"What we can notice is that innovation is very much a long-term strategy of Chinese authorities. So it's very clearly anchored in the policy framework or the actions that had been taken by Chinese authorities," Gurry told Xinhua.

Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States of America are the world's five most innovative nations, according to this year's GII.

China ranked 29th globally, unchanged with the previous year and ranked 1st among the middle-income economies when measuring the quality of innovation, the 2015 index said.

As a whole, the group of top 25 performers, all high-income economies, remained largely unchanged from past editions, illustrating that the leaders' performance was hard to challenge for those that follow.

"Yet we see signs that gap is narrowed, especially between the more advanced countries and the middle-income countries," said Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director for Global Indices.

"Performance of China in many areas is quite comparable to many other high-income countries," Lanvin added. Endit