Shanghai won the first WIPO "Innovative City Award"

China News Service, Shanghai, October 13 (Reporter Chen Jing) On October 13, Beijing time, Shanghai, China, became one of the first cities to win the first "Innovation City Award" from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Also winning were Charleroi, Belgium and Liverpool, England.

On the 13th, Beijing time, WIPO held the first "Innovative City Award" award ceremony, and Shanghai, China, became one of the first cities to win this award. (Photo courtesy of Shanghai Intellectual Property Office)

It is understood that this year, WIPO officially established the "Innovative City Award" to commend member cities for their positive actions and achievements in empowering urban change in terms of releasing creative potential and promoting innovative development. This award attracts much attention. Shanghai participated in the application for this award through the recommendation of the State Intellectual Property Office.

WIPO believes that Shanghai has proposed a grand development vision and is committed to deeply integrating technology, innovation and creative development. The city actively expands the coverage of intellectual property public services, opens up and shares innovation infrastructure, strengthens the linkage and collaboration of various innovation entities, and at the same time cultivates development opportunities for cultural and creative industries.

After evaluation by an independent international jury, the WIPO official website announced the list of 15 shortlisted cities, including Shanghai, on September 22. These 15 cities come from 11 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, covering cities of different sizes and echelons, and together show the diverse impact of innovation and creation on the high-quality development of cities and people's lives and well-being.

Data show that in 2025, Shanghai's GDP will reach 5.67 trillion yuan, and its economic aggregate will rank among the top 5 in the world; social R&D expenditure will reach 4.5% of the city's GDP, with strong innovation momentum; facing the field of new productivity, the total scale of Shanghai's three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence has exceeded 2 trillion yuan, with obvious growth rates. As of June 2026, Shanghai has 67.6 high-value invention patents per 10,000 people. The "Shanghai-Suzhou" innovation cluster ranks first in global innovation.

The Shanghai Municipal Government delegation stated that Shanghai will take this honor as a new incentive and responsibility, implement the goals of innovative city construction at a high level, deeply integrate the concept of global innovative city construction into the overall deployment of urban development in the next five years, further promote the construction of a strong intellectual property city and an international science and technology innovation center, build a higher-level international innovation cooperation platform, and join hands with global cities to build innovation highlands, jointly promote innovation and prosperity, and share innovation results. (over)