Berlin
Reuters
—
China moved into the top 10 of the United Nations’ annual ranking of most innovative countries for the first time Tuesday, replacing Europe’s largest economy, Germany, as firms in Beijing invest heavily in research and development.
Switzerland remained in first place, a position it has held since 2011, followed by Sweden and the United States, while China was in 10th place in the Global Innovation Index (GII) survey of 139 economies that ranks them based on 78 indicators.
China is on track to become the biggest R&D spender as it rapidly closes the gap in private sector financing, the GII showed.
China contributed about a quarter of international patent applications in 2024, remaining the biggest source of them, while the US, Japan and Germany – which together make up 40% of total applications – all recorded slight declines.
Ownership of patents is widely seen as an important sign of a country’s economic strength and industrial know-how.
The outlook for global innovation is clouded by declining investment, according to the survey.
R&D growth is set to slow to 2.3% this year from 2.9% last year, which was its lowest since 2010 after the financial crisis.
Looking at the long term, Germany should not be alarmed by its fall to 11th place, said GII co-editor, Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, adding that the new rankings did not reflect the impact of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in the US.
“The challenge for Germany is how…, alongside its strong, decades-long status as a really powerful engine of industrial innovation, to become a powerhouse of digital innovation,” said Daren Tang, director general of the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization, which publishes the innovation index.
The other countries in the list’s top 10 – behind the US and ahead of China – were, in order of ranking: South Korea, Singapore, Britain, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark.