Hong Kong, 2 mainland Chinese cities named UN body’s top innovation cluster A cluster of cities comprising Hong Kong and two others from mainland China has been named the world’s top innovation hub, a feat attributed to a new ranking metric that involves venture capital deals, a UN body has said. For the first time in five years, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster surpassed Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan to claim top spot in the 2025 Global Innovation Index released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Monday that the addition of venture capital deals as a key indicator in the index was the essential fuel enabling inspiring ideas to emerge as real-world enterprises. “Hong Kong is Asia’s premier financial centre. We offer deep liquidity, a wide spectrum of financing channels and a supportive environment for innovation,” Chan said at this year’s index launch event, which was hosted in the city for the first time at the Science Park. “Hong Kong is blessed with a vibrant ecosystem of angel investors, venture capital and private equity funds, supporting companies at every stage of growth.” The finance chief also underscored that Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area were exceptionally well positioned to become one of the world’s most dynamic and influential innovation clusters, with the city playing a pivotal role. Carsten Fink, chief economist of the WIPO’s department for economics and data analytics, said the new ranking metric of venture capital deals played a role alongside a cluster’s existing strengths in patent filings and scientific publications. He said all three metrics were given equal weight in the ranking, with the data used for venture capital including more than 236,000 deals across 66,000 locations worldwide. Among the top 100 global innovation clusters this year, 33 economies were represented. China had the most with 24 clusters, followed by the United States with 22 and Germany with seven. The WIPO reported that the top 10 clusters globally accounted for a significant share of all innovation activity, contributing 40 per cent of the world’s patent applications and 35 per cent of its venture capital deals. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster in 2025 registered 6,916 venture capital deals, a figure that placed it sixth among the top 10. In this category, San Jose-San Francisco led all blocs. In scientific research, the cluster’s output of 193,605 publications put it in third place, trailing Beijing and Shanghai-Suzhou. Its 117,542 patent applications, meanwhile, secured the second position after Tokyo-Yokohama. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong said that the three key evaluation metrics for the rankings were priorities for governments around the world, and that authorities would press on with these areas. “We must continue to increase our number of patent applications. We also need to further strengthen our advantage in fundamental research by publishing more scientific articles,” Sun said. “Third, and also very important, we need to attract more venture capital to Hong Kong to develop more start-ups.” Sun said venture capital was a key pillar for future development, with past initiatives yielding positive results. Fink said Hong Kong was a “really important scientific hub” where the major universities rank among the top institutions in the world and that the WIPO’s data was reflected in the scientific publication output. “These are some of the major patent filers worldwide and they are located in this cluster. I think the venture capital deal activity you see on both sides of the border, but of course, Hong Kong is also an important source of financing for innovative activities in this cluster.” The chief economist also noted that governments in successful innovation clusters, including Hong Kong, should focus on maintaining the existing ecosystem and adapting to new technological trends such as artificial intelligence. Earlier in the day, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with the WIPO, allowing Hong Kong’s judiciary to share landmark intellectual property judgments with the WIPO Lex-Judgments database, fostering greater information sharing and building a more connected global IP community. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3323892/cluster-hong-kong-2-mainland-cities-named-worlds-top-innovation-hub-un-body?module=top_story&pgtype=section (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post