High-tech industries dominate China innovation, says Top 100 report
High-tech industries including electronic components now dominate innovation in China, in a shift away from the dominance of the automotive, domestic appliances and electric power generation and supply industries.
This is the finding of Clarivate Analytics’ second annual report on Chinese innovation, called “ 2017 Top 100 Chinese Innovators”.
“It is beyond question that innovation has become one of the most important driving forces for China’s future development,” said Linda Guo, managing director of China at Clarivate.
According to the report, China has seen a steady increase in research and development expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product, from 1.37% in 2006 to 2.07% in 2015.
“In the same period, the total number of patented inventions rose from 85,000 in 2006 to 1.67 million in 2015, an astounding increase of over 1,850%. China now accounts for six out of every ten patents published worldwide (sources: OECD, Derwent World Patents Index),” it noted.
However, just 12 of 31 provinces in China are represented in the list. This indicates that innovative Chinese companies are still concentrated in the eastern region of the country, where Beijing is based.
China’s capital Beijing is the innovation hub with 42 of the 100 companies on the list. Beijing is followed by Guangdong, in southern China, with 27 corporations, six more than in 2016.
Telecoms companies ZTE and Huawei, and electronic components producer Beijing Electronics made it into the top tier. The top 100 companies are grouped into four tiers according to the weighted scores from the criteria used to evaluate innovation performance.
Clarivate reported that the top 100 innovators are focused on protecting their innovation in domestic markets.
From 2012 to 2016, nearly three quarters of the organisations had invention patent portfolios of which 90% or more were filed only in China.
But some companies are becoming increasingly global, with ZTE leading the way. The telecoms business had 66% of its invention portfolio in the period 2012 to 2016 filed outside China.
ZTE is followed by Huawei (65%), electronic components firm AMEC (63%), Alibaba (56%) and semiconductor display technologies supplier BOE Technology (38%).
“These companies are all leading players in the global high-tech electronic components, communications, consumer electronics and media internet industries, and clearly show China’s growing global influence in these areas,” said a press release from Clarivate.
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