国家创新指数报告2022—2023（National Innovation Index Report 2022—2023）

Innovation is the primary driving force of development. At present, the COVID-19 

pandemic is making a far-reaching impact on the world. Economic recovery is confronted with 

serious challenges. Regional conflicts and climate change are aggravating global crises. Science, 

technology and innovation (STI) provides important means and ways for countries around the 

world to advance development, promote transformation and jointly tackle global challenges. 

China places innovation at the center of its national development agenda and vigorously pursues 

an innovation-driven development strategy. In 2006, the Outline of the National Program for 

Long- and Medium-Term Scientific and Technological Development (2006-2020) put forward 

the strategic goal of “improving indigenous innovation capability and building an innovation-

oriented country”. In 2016, the Outline of the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy 

set a three-step strategic goal of “entering the ranks of innovation-oriented countries, moving to 

the forefront of innovation-oriented countries, and becoming a world STI power”. On this basis, 

the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) further made the strategic 

plan to accelerate the building of an innovation-oriented country and a world STI power. 

The 20th CPC National Congress made comprehensive plans for the implementation of the 

education, science and technology, and talent strategies, and stressed the importance of taking 

science and technology as the primary productive force, talent as the primary resource, and 

innovation as the primary driving force. It also called for deepening the implementation of the 

strategy of developing the country through science and education, the strategy of strengthening 

the country through talent, and the strategy of innovation-driven development, in order to open 

up new sectors and tracks of development, and cultivate new development drivers and strengths.

In order to monitor and evaluate the progress of building an innovation-oriented country, 

the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development has been conducting research 

on the National Innovation Index since 2006, and, with the support and assistance of the leaders 

and relevant departments of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), as well as public 

institutions, and experts and scholars from all sectors, published 11 editions of the National 

Innovation Index Report since 2011. 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. According to the research, China’s international ranking of comprehensive 

innovation capability rose from the 25th place in 2006 to the 13th place in 2021, and decisive 

progress has been made in China’s efforts to build an innovation-oriented country. The results 

of the report provided the basis for the government and academic community to correctly 

assess China’s innovation progress.

The National Innovation Index Report 2022-2023 is the 12th edition of the series. 

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

competitiveness and innovation capacity, the report is based on an indicator matrix comprising 

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

performance, and innovation environment. The National Innovation Index consists of five first-

level indicators and 30 second-level indicators.

China is entering a new stage of development, from building an innovation-oriented 

country to joining the forefront of innovation-oriented countries, and the clarion call to 

building a world STI power has been sounded. Building on the adjustment of the indicator 

system in the previous edition, the indicators on innovation environment have been further 

optimized in this report: first, enhanced comparability with leading international reports. The 

report adopts the survey data of major international institutions that are used in the Global 

Innovation Index Report issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and 

other organizations, and introduces new indicators such as “rule of law”, “policy environment 

for doing business”, and “quality of market regulation” to present the full picture of a country’s 

legal, policy and market regulation environment; second, greater emphasis on international 

cooperation and exchanges. The report takes the Network Readiness Index (NRI) developed by 

the research team of Cornell University as the basis for evaluating a country’s progress in IT 

development; third, more stable data source of international survey indicators. For indicators 

such as “availability of venture capital”, “university-industry collaboration in R&D” and 

“entrepreneurial culture”, the report draws on the indicators used in international reports that 

are long involved in innovation and competitiveness evaluation, and establishes a more reliable 

matrix of internationally comparable indicators with optimized data sources.

This report continues to feature 40 countries with active STI activities (whose combined 

R&D expenditure accounts for more than 95% of the world), and continues to calculate the 

National Innovation Index through the benchmarking method commonly used worldwide. 

All data are obtained from the databases and publications of governments or international 

organizations and therefore internationally comparable and authoritative. The report is based