According to Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General of United Nation (UN), on August 15, Switzerland remains at the top of the Global Innovation Index (GII) while China is found among the Top 25 for the very first time this year. The 2016 GII was co-announced on the same day by UN World Intellectual Property Center and other organizations including US Cornell University in Geneva, Switzerland.

Starting from 2007, GII is published annually. The top runner this year is the same as last year - Switzerland, followed by Sweden, UK, US, Netherlands and Singapore. Aside from Singapore, other Asian countries / regions found in the top rows are Korea (No. 11), Japan (No. 16), Hong Kong China (No. 14) and China, which raised from No. 29 last year to No. 25 this year. The World Intellectual Property Center acclaimed that through the study of the innovation capabilities of over 100 countries and areas over the last 9 years, China has made significant progress in innovation, although mostly those in the leading positions of GII are highly advanced economic entities.

In 2016 GII, Japan, US, UK and Germany stand out in the aspect of “innovation quality”. “Innovation quality” is one of the top-tier benchmarks to examine the quality of universities, science publications and international patent filing amount. China is at No. 17 in “innovation quality”, which positions it at the top of the middle-income economic entities ranking, followed by India.