The number of innovation hubs in China has surpassed those in the US for the first time, according to new research by the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPOs) Global Innovation Index (GII). China has 24 innovation clusters ranked among the top 100, overtaking the United States which has 21.

Tokyo–Yokohama and four other East Asian cities ranked among the top science and technology (S&T) global hubs for investors in 2023,

The hubs, termed ‘clusters’ in the report, are areas around the world where the highest density of inventors and scientific authors are located.

In 2023, as in previous years, the top 100 S&T clusters are concentrated in three regions, namely, Northern America, Europe and Asia

The top five hubs, according to WIPO’s GII, are:

Tokyo-Yokohama

Tokyo-Yokohama came in first as the top performing cluster among the top 100. Tokyo is home to Mitsubishi Electric, the cluster’s top applicant in 2023, which reported ¥4.476 trillion ($30bn) in revenue in 2022.

Further south, Nissan’s headquarters are located in Yokohama, the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub for the Tokyo Commercial Area. Nissan was the 9th largest automotive manufacturer in the world in 2022, with a revenue of $78bn.

The region is also home to the University of Tokyo, the top organisation for producing S&T authors, or individuals who contribute to a work. The University receives the largest amount of national grants for research institutions among all institutes.

The Japanese government’s massive investment in its research had led some to dub the university ‘the best research university in Japan’, according to Reuters.

Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou

Coming in second is Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou. Shenzhen is a Chinese Special Economic zone and technology hub, known as China’s Silicon Valley while the neighbouring Hong Kong is known as Silicon Harbour.

Shenzhen home to telecoms giant Huawei which reported an annual revenue of $92.5bn in 2022 and surpassed Apple in 2018 as the second largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world.

The world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, BYD Company, is also based in Shenzhen and reported a revenue of $58bn.

Technology and entertainment conglomerate Tencent and drone manufacturing company DJI are also headquartered there.

Seoul

Seoul advanced by one place to third in the rankings overtaking Beijing, now in fourth. Seoul hosts 15 companies on Fortune 500 list such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai.

In 2023, Samsung announced it would reduce memory chips production, following the company’s expected 96% decline in quarterly operating profit—from 14 trillion won in 2022 to 600 billion won in 2023. 

Seoul National University also contributes to the cluster’s high S&T ranking. In 2015, Reuters ranked SNU as the 31st most innovative institution in the world.

Beijing

The number of state-owned enterprises headquartered in Beijing saw the capital city place 54 companies on the Fortune Global 500 in 2022, accounting for 37% of all Chinese-headquartered companies on the list.

Chinese electronic components producer BOE Technology was Beijing’s top applicant. In 2021, WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators report ranked BOE Technology’s number of patent applications as 7th in the world, with 1,892 patent applications in 2020.

Shanghai-Suzhou

Shanghai, a global center for finance and an innovation technology hub, boasts the world’s busiest container port. As of 2018, the Greater Shanghai area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product of nearly $1.33trn.

Shanghai is the headquarters of China’s largest steelmaker Baosteel Group and China’s largest shipbuilding base Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group.

The Shanghai-based SAIC Motor is also one of the three largest automotive corporations in China. The company has partnerships with Volkswagen and General Motors.