The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's ranking rose by one slot to 14th globally among 139 economies and remained fifth in Asia in the Global Innovation Index 2026 published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
In the "Innovation Input" sub-index, the city remained the eighth strongest globally, while its ranking in the "Innovation Output" sub-index rose by one place to 21st, according to the index published on Tuesday.
The SAR government said it is pleased to see the good progress Hong Kong has achieved in the index, highlighting that expediting the development of innovation and technology (I&T) has been a policy priority.
Hong Kong's scores in all five pillars under the "Innovation Input" sub-index were higher than the averages of the high-income group. It ranked second globally in "Market Sophistication" and rose to sixth, seventh and 11th globally in "Human Capital and Research", "Institutions" and "Infrastructure", respectively.
As for sub-pillars, Hong Kong continued to top the ranking in "Credit", and ranked among the global top 10 in many areas, including "Tertiary Education" (third), "Information and Communication Technology (ICT)" (fourth), "Investment" (fourth), "Institutional Environment" (ninth) and "Business Environment" (10th).
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The data also showed that the SAR’s gross expenditure on research and development (R&D) and the number of researchers continued to rise.
In the "Innovation Output" sub-index, Hong Kong's ranking in the "Creative Outputs" pillar rose by two places to 15th globally, and that in the "Knowledge and Technology Outputs" pillar rose one slot further to 29th.
Hong Kong's number of patents and mobile app creation continued to increase, the data showed.
The government is fully committed to developing Hong Kong into an international I&T center, following the directions set out in the directions set out in the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the HKSAR (2026-2030), a government spokesman said in a statement.
“Among other things, Hong Kong will enhance the institutional framework for I&T development, expedite the alignment with key national strategies in technology, and develop the new 'three major I&T parks and five key R&D institutions' paradigm.”
The city will also advance new industrialization accordingly to establish a framework with Hong Kong characteristics for a new industrialization system and take forward the AI+ Initiative on all fronts by enhancing the layout of computing infrastructure, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence, and empowering different sectors of the economy through AI technology, the spokesman added.
“Hong Kong will leverage the advantage of being closely connected to the mainland and the world to develop an international hub for science and technology co-operation, as well as deepen the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), thereby attracting global I&T resources and talent,” the spokesman said.
The government emphasized that it will strive to realize the vision in the city’s first five-year plan for Hong Kong to essentially establish an international I&T center based in the bay area, serving the entire country, while connecting to the world after 2030.
