Shenzhen Topped as the Most Innovative City in China, says HSBC

Based on the new research led by the HSBC, companies that are located at Shenzhen in  Southern China are considered the most innovative, even though a lot of traditional manufacturers shifted into the new economy along with the growing start-up sectors.

For ages, policymakers in the country are expecting for further innovation in order to heightened growth. This was reiterated by President Xi Jinping during his policy address during Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress in October, urging for greater modernization from Chinese firms and to acquire big data as well as to improve internet technologies and artificial intelligence.

The HSBC report assessed the “innovative power” of more or less 1,200 companies in China that were included in the list, the result shows that Shenzhen-based businesses obtained the highest average score. The main category for the assessment is gauged according to the range of its research and development investment statistics, total patent applications, as well as the inventive business model compared with other features.

The city was hailed as the most competitive urban in China, and ranked sixth most competitive all over the world, as shown in a separate data from the UN and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released last month.

Shenzhen is composed of more than one million private companies which includes business giants such as Tencent Holdings, BYD Auto Co., and Huawei and ZTE.

Other reports also presented that few of industrial provinces take after the ranking, particularly the plateau province of Shanxi,  the northern Chinese province is known for its coal mining livelihood. Also, the northeastern Liaoning province is recognized for ferrous metals production and mining. The districts gained 34 percent and 29 percent in 2016, respectively, despite low levels of inflation.

Generally, the current “innovative power” from Beijing-based companies increased by 13 percent compared with the survey last year.