Improving indigenous innovation capability and building an innovation-oriented country

are the strategic goals set forth in China’s Outline of the National Program for Longand

Medium-Term Scientific and Technological Development (2006—2020). The Chinese

Academy of Science and Technology for Development began working on the national

innovation index (NII) research in 2006 in order to track and assess China’s progress in

building itself into an innovation-oriented country. With the support and assistance from the

Ministry of Science and Technology and its related departments and bureaus, related public

institutions, and experts from various sectors, the National Innovation Index Report has been

published annually since 2011. The National Innovation Index Report 2019 is the 9th release.

The National Innovation Index Report, as one of the reports of the “national innovation

survey system” series prepared in accordance with the Measures for Implementation of the

National Innovation Survey System, is a state-level innovation capacity evaluation report.

Drawing upon domestic and international theories and methods of evaluation of national

competitiveness and innovation capacity, it is based on an indicator matrix comprising five

pillars, i.e. innovation resources, knowledge creation, enterprise innovation, innovation

performance, and innovation environment. This report is still framed around the same

indicator system structure as the previous release, which consists of 5 first-level indicators

and 30 second-level indicators. The 30 second-level indicators include 20 quantitative

indicators which highlight innovation scale, quality and efficiency and international

competitiveness while maintaining a balance between large and small countries, and ten

qualitative indicators which reflect the innovation environment.

This report continues to feature 40 countries with active science, technology and

innovation (STI) activities (whose combined R&D expenditure accounts for more than 95%

of the world’s total), and continues to use the commonly adopted benchmarking method

worldwide to calculate the national innovation index. All data are obtained from databases

and publications of governments or international organizations, and are internationally

comparable and authoritative. It calculates the innovation index scores of the 40 countries

based on the latest statistical data (2017 data unless otherwise indicated) and compares them

with their performances in the previous release.

In today’s world, a country’s prosperity and sustainable development is mainly

dependent on the development and accumulation of its national innovation capacity,

rather than on the size of population or availability of natural resources. In the face of the

opportunities and challenges accompanying science and technology development and the

evolution of the international political and economic landscape, countries are increasing

investment in innovation resources to strengthen their innovation capacity. Against the

backdrop of global competition, China moved up to the 15th spot in the national innovation

index with a higher overall index score, further narrowing its gap with advanced countries.

The report to the 19th CPC National Congress expressly put forward the strategic task

of “accelerating the construction of innovative country”. The establishment of the national

innovation survey system will create favorable conditions for improving the innovation

evaluation indicator system and advancing national innovation capability monitoring and

evaluation. The effort to evaluate China’s comprehensive innovation capability, track its

innovation capability development and analyze the gap with leading innovation-driven

countries requires continuous exploration and in-depth research. We sincerely hope that the

annual National Innovation Index Report will provide the public with a window through