An aerial view of Suzhou Industrial Park (CFP)

The Shanghai-Suzhou area ranked fifth in the Global Innovation Index (GII)’s top 100 science and technology (S&T) clusters, as recently released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Since its inception in 2007, the GII has shaped the innovation measurement and become a cornerstone of economic policymaking. From 2017, the GII began publishing the world’s top 100 S&T clusters, which are established by analyzing the locations of inventors listed in published patent applications under the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treat (PCT) as well as the authors listed on published scientific articles.

Among the top ten S&T clusters, seven are located in Asia and three in the United States. The world’s five largest S&T clusters are all located in East Asia, led by Tokyo-Yokohama, followed by Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou, Beijing, Seoul and Shanghai-Suzhou.

For the second consecutive year, China leads the ranking list with the most clusters (26), 2 more than last year, while the United States follows with 20 clusters.