The Pujiang Innovation Forum — 2020 International Science, Technology and Innovation Think Tank Forum has invited 12 experts to make speeches offline and online on innovation systems and sources of innovation.

They shared views on how to create regional innovation ecosystems, stimulate innovation and make Shanghai a science and technology innovation center with global influence.

In the latest Global Innovation Index released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China retained its 14th place among the top-performing economies.

The index showed that China has established itself as an innovation leader as the only middle-income economy in the top 30, thanks to its high ratings in patents and trademarks.

But the index also pointed out that China is lacking capacity building in innovation, a fair and effective innovation ecosystem and a leading innovation cooperation platform, said Hu Zhijian, director of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

“Openness decided a region’s economic level and a country’s comprehensive strength. China should embrace the global innovation cooperation,” he said. “At home, China can first promote regional development in the regions of the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau.”

From the global innovation landscape, China’s innovation capacity and its development are not at the same level, according to Mu Rongping, Party chief of the Institute of Science and Development under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

China is rapidly making innovation but the level of innovation development still lags behind many other countries, he said.

He added that China should look more to the future rather than focus strictly on resolving today’s problems. Most cities make five-year or 10-year development plans, but it’s better for authorities to think about further development.

Shanghai, specifically, still lags behind in becoming a global scientific and technological innovation city in terms of labor productivity, level of innovation, comprehensive competitiveness and per capita GDP, said Quan Heng, vice chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations.

The city can make reforms and increase investment in talent, technological research and development and industrialize innovation in order to achieve future growth, he added.