The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science cluster again last night beat Silicon Valley to be declared the world’s top innovation hub.
Scientists in the south China cities filed 2,259 patent applications, published 4,060 scientific articles and had 138 venture capital deals per 1 million inhabitants over the last five years, said the World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations body, on Tuesday.
This put them at the top of global rankings. Following behind were Tokyo-Yokohama, San Jose-San Francisco, Seoul, and Beijing.
Five of the top six scorers were in Asia—confirming the belief that the world’s intellectual energy has convincingly moved from the western world to east Asia. The south China cluster was also in first place last year.
The scores are measured by combing three metrics: international patent filings, scientific publications and venture capital deals.
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