17:41 JST, September 4, 2024
GENEVA (AFP-Jiji) — Tokyo-Yokohama will remain the world’s largest science and technology cluster in 2024, although clusters in middle-income economies will see the fastest growth in the innovation sector, the United Nations said on August 27.
According to the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou region remains in second place, while Beijing has overtaken Seoul to take third place.
According to WIPO, the UN agency dealing with patents and innovation, China tops the list for the second year in a row with the most clusters in the top 100, with 26 (two more), followed by the United States with 20 clusters.
The WIPO Global Innovation Index publishes an annual ranking of the 100 largest science and technology clusters. Based on data on patent applications and scientific publications, it identifies local concentrations of leading scientific and technological activities.
The two largest clusters together account for nearly one in five patent applications filed worldwide, with Mitsubishi Electric and Chinese telecom giant Huawei leading the way.
While there was little change in the top 10, clusters in middle-income countries further down the rankings showed the strongest growth, WIPO said.
Chinese cities Hefei and Zhengzhou topped the charts with 23% and 19% growth in science and technology output respectively, followed by Cairo (11%), Chennai (8%) and Istanbul (8%).
“Most North American and European clusters fell in the rankings,” WIPO said.
Sao Paulo ranked 73rd, making it the only top 100 city region in Latin America. Cairo ranked 95th, making it the only African city with a top 100 city region. This marks the Egyptian capital’s first appearance in the rankings.
Kuala Lumpur, at 93rd, also made its debut in the top 100 clusters.
“Science and technology clusters are the foundation for robust national innovation ecosystems,” said Daren Tang, head of WIPO.
“It is encouraging to see that these clusters are flourishing not only in the mature centres of industrialised countries, but also in the emerging innovation hotspots of selected developing countries.”
After China and the United States, Germany had the most clusters (eight), with Munich in 22nd place.
South Korea and India, led by Bengaluru at 56th, had four each, while France, Britain, Japan and Canada each had three in the top 100.
According to WIPO, the clusters with the most scientific and technological activity relative to population size are Cambridge in the UK, followed by San Jose-San Francisco in the United States and Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
