'Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou' rises to top of global innovation clusters

摘要：The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released its 2025 Global Innovation Index in Hong Kong on September 1st, annou

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released its 2025 Global Innovation Index in Hong Kong on September 1st, announcing the top 100 innovation clusters worldwide. For the first time, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou innovation cluster has ranked first globally.

In this year's ranking, the Tokyo-Yokohama cluster and the San Jose-San Francisco cluster in the United States took second and third places, respectively. Previously, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster had held the global second position for five consecutive years.

Also located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Macao-Zhuhai innovation cluster made the top 100 list for the second consecutive time. Overall, the top 100 global innovation clusters are distributed across 33 economies, with the highest number of clusters found in China (24), the United States (22), and Germany (7).

The Global Innovation Index Cluster Ranking, launched in 2017, identifies concentrations of world-class innovation activity based on three key indicators: the number of international patent applications filed via WIPO's "Patent Cooperation Treaty" (PCT), the number of scientific publications, and venture capital (VC) transaction volume, a newly added indicator this year. Venture capital investment helps capture how technological knowledge is transformed into startups and ultimately into new products and services in the marketplace.