SHENZHEN was ranked the most innovative city on the mainland followed by Shanghai and Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, according to a ranking by Forbes China last week.
Shenzhen took the top spot following a survey of 132 mainland cities with a GDP of at least 360 billion yuan (US$54.1 billion) in 2009, and with reference to the number of new patent applications, technology spending ratio and other indicators.
At a press conference in Beijing on Friday, Liu Ruiming, executive editor-in-chief of Forbes China, said Shenzhen at the age of 30 had formed a business-based and market-oriented research and development system and made dazzling achievements in the high-tech field.
In 2009, the city s expenditure in science research totaled 29.7 billion yuan, accounting for 3.6 percent of its GDP, an increase of 13.9 percent compared with 2008. This ratio surpassed that of all other countries except Israel, Sweden and Finland. The number of high-tech enterprises in Shenzhen accredited by the government numbered 3,086 by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen, the residents of which have an average age of under 30, had attracted a large number of active venture capital organizations with total assets of 70 billion yuan at the end of 2009.
The organizations had invested 60 billion yuan in the city and had supported a large number of new-tech programs and enterprises.The city also ranked the first in patent applications and approvals in China. In 2009, the city accepted 42,279 patent applications.(Han Ximin)
