{"id":7111,"date":"2026-03-04T02:16:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/?p=7111"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:23:53","slug":"the-first-edition-of-global-innovation-finance-index-releasedbeijing-hong-kong-shanghai-and-shenzhen-rank-among-the-global-top-15-three-greater-bay-area-cities-secure-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/events-conferences-en\/the-first-edition-of-global-innovation-finance-index-releasedbeijing-hong-kong-shanghai-and-shenzhen-rank-among-the-global-top-15-three-greater-bay-area-cities-secure-china\/","title":{"rendered":"The\u00a0First\u00a0Edition\u00a0of\u00a0Global Innovation Finance Index Released:Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen Rank Among the Global Top 15; Three Greater Bay Area Cities Secure China\u2019s Top Five; Chengdu\u2013Chongqing Economic Circle\u00a0Leads\u00a0the Western Region"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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On February 4, 2026, the China Innovation Finance Institute, FINOVATURE, and the China Innovation Finance Institute | Chengdu jointly released the Global Innovation Finance Index (GIFI) and the Global Innovation Finance Index & Report (hereinafter referred to as the \u201cIndex\u201d and the \u201cReport\u201d), and hosted a closed-door roundtable themed \u201cInvest in Innovation to Shape Future.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Index and the Report offer a renewed analysis and definition of \u201cInnovation Finance,\u201d highlighting how finance can strategically and efficiently allocate more capital, tools, and mechanisms to key players and critical stages\u00a0in technological innovation,\u00a0thereby improving overall innovation efficiency and industrial competitiveness.<\/p>

For the first time, the Index and the Report establish an \u201cInnovation\u2013Finance\u2013Development\u201d three-dimensional evaluation framework, build parallel domestic and international ranking systems, and assess the development of innovation finance across global cities.<\/p>

Under the \u201cInnovation\u2013Finance\u2013Development\u201d framework, the Index adopts 77 indicators for domestic ranking and 43\u00a0indicators\u00a0for\u00a0international ranking. On this basis, the Index and the Report conduct in-depth study\u00a0and assessment\u00a0for 54 global\u00a0cities\u00a0and 50 domestic cities\u00a0that are both financial centers and innovation hubs, focusing on global experience and local practices of how finance empowers\u00a0innovation.<\/p>

At the launch roundtable, Mr. Calvin Chenggang Fu, Chairman of the China Innovation Finance Institute, and Dr. Rui Ma, Senior Research Officer, elaborated on\u00a0the research methodology, key\u00a0findings, and\u00a0recommendations of the Index and the Report. Dozens of experts from government agencies, international organizations, academic societies, professional\u00a0associations, think tanks, universities, and enterprises gathered to discuss\u00a0the study\u00a0and offer<\/u>\u00a0in-depth comments.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\tKey Findings of the Report\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Global Landscape: North America Leads; Asia Shows Strong Innovation Momentum; Four Chinese Cities Rank Among the Global Top 15<\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The rankings of 54 global\u00a0\u201cinnovation finance cities\u201d\u00a0place New York, San Francisco, London, Beijing, and Tokyo in the top five. Among the top 15 cities, seven are from Asia, four from North America, and four from Europe.<\/p>

Among the global innovation finance cities, Chinese cities\u00a0stand\u00a0out: Beijing (4th), Hong Kong (8th), Shanghai (9th), and Shenzhen (12th) all enter the global top 15, highlighting China\u2019s leading position in the global innovation finance landscape.<\/p>

Other cities in the global top 15 include Tokyo (5th), Seoul (6th), Paris (7th), Singapore (10th), Chicago (11th), Toronto (13th), Zurich (14th), and Munich (15th).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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From a continental perspective, North America leads comprehensively across Innovation (66.6), Finance (68.6), and Development (77.0). Europe follows, supported by strong foundations in Finance (68.6) and Development (76.5). Asia demonstrates vigorous momentum in Innovation (65.0), approaching North America and emerging as a new key engine of global innovation growth.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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*Note: Due to the limited sample size, Oceania (including Sydney and Melbourne) and South America (including S\u00e3o Paulo) are excluded from the intercontinental comparative analysis.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Notably, among the 54 leading global innovation finance cities, China performs particularly well with 16 cities making the list,\u00a0accounting for\u00a0more than a\u00a0quarter of the total. This indicates that China has formed a multi-tiered innovation finance ecosystem, and has developed global-leading advantages in certain areas.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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China\u2019s Landscape: Highly Synergistic Development Pathways; Eastern Region Leads; Central and Western Region Rise\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Among China\u2019s 50 domestic\u00a0innovation finance cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou rank\u00a0within\u00a0the top five. Nanjing, Wuhan, Suzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi\u2019an, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Changsha, and Hefei rank among the top 15.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Regional development shows a clear gradient<\/b><\/strong><\/p>

Eastern Region\u00a0leads across Innovation (66.3), Finance (64.6), and Development (69.8), with an outstanding overall performance.<\/p>

Central Region\u00a0shows strong momentum, closely following the East in Innovation (64.8).<\/p>

Western Region\u00a0exhibits differentiated development. Cities represented by the Chengdu\u2013Chongqing Economic\u00a0Circle\u00a0stands\u00a0out; their scores in Finance (62.7) and Development (69.7) surpass those of the Central Region.<\/p>

Northeastern\u00a0Region: While facing transformation pressures and scoring lower than other regions across the three dimensions, the region\u2019s efforts to stimulate new growth by optimizing its innovation and finance ecosystem are attracting broad expectations at home and abroad.<\/p>

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The Report also reveals a feature that distinguishes China markedly from international patterns:<\/p>

Across China\u2019s cities, the three dimensions of \u201cInnovation\u2013Finance\u2013Development\u201d show extremely strong positive correlations, with coefficients all above 0.8 and even over 0.9\u2014especially between Finance and Innovation. This indicates that innovation, finance, and development are tightly linked and mutually reinforcing in China, forming a more synergistic development model compared with the global landscape.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Expert Dialogues on \u201cInnovation Finance\u201d<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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During the themed discussion session at the launch roundtable, Mr. Calvin Chenggang Fu and Dr. Rui Ma first presented the Index\u2019s research methodology and core findings. Experts and scholars then engaged in in-depth exchanges on the value of the Report, improvement suggestions, and application prospects, speaking\u00a0highly of the research\u00a0and offering\u00a0many constructive recommendations.<\/p>

When explaining the original intent of the research, Mr. Calvin Fu noted: \u201cInnovation finance, in essence, is about strategically optimizing and allocating financial capital around technological innovation; designing financial instruments and mechanisms to foster and accelerate the innovation development and industrialization of new ideas, new technologies, and new models. As future urban economies integrate into global competition and cooperation, we should continue to explore differentiated and distinctive development paths for innovation finance and the innovation economy, and cultivate a more resilient innovation finance ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>

Mr. Weidong Chen, President of the Academy of Bank of China\u00a0and Secretary-General of the China International Finance Society, shared his views: \u201cThe Global Innovation Finance Index has the potential to become an important tool connecting the building of urban innovation capabilities and soft power. If we continue to advance research along this framework, it may gradually develop into a brand and provide valuable guidance for some key Chinese cities to improve their innovation environment.\u201d<\/p>

From the perspective of \u00a0assessment, Professor Geng Xiao, Professor of Practice and Associate Dean (International Cooperation) at the School of Public Policy\u00a0of\u00a0The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Chairman of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance (HKIIF), noted: \u201cUrban clusters reflect the overall innovation capacity of a country\u2014especially of a region. When measuring innovation finance, we should shift from a single-city perspective to an urban-cluster and industry-synergy perspective. This high-quality Global Innovation Finance Index provides a valuable attempt in this direction.\u201d<\/p>

Professor Min Song, Dean of the Institute of Central China Development at Wuhan University and President of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance (HKIIF), emphasized the value of the Index\u00a0structure: \u201cThe value of a composite index lies in revealing the synergy among innovation, finance, and industry. In the future, this index could focus on \u2018industry,\u2019 offering\u00a0more actionable\u00a0insights to\u00a0local government. The Global Innovation Finance Index is of great value, and\u00a0we\u00a0look forward to\u00a0its future work.\u201d<\/p>

Professor Zhigang Qiu, Vice Dean of the Shenzhen Finance Institute, Renmin University of China, remarked: \u201cConducting an international\u00a0index study is very challenging. The key is not methodological complexity, but whether it can answer the core question: \u2018What is being measured?\u2019 The Global Innovation Finance Index represents a high-quality attempt, and its efforts and results deserve strong recognition. Renmin University of China\u2019s Shenzhen Institute recently completed a study on China Technology Finance Index, and there is considerable scope for future cooperation.\u201d<\/p>

Professor Mengzi Fu, Vice President of the China International Economic Relations Association\u00a0(CIERA)\u00a0and former Vice President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), affirmed the pioneering nature of the research: \u201cChina\u2019s independent construction of an innovation finance index is a valuable attempt. The key is to continuously improve professionalism, objectivity, and acceptability. Building such an index is indeed challenging at the outset, but it is worth continuous updating and publication, to steadily enhance its international recognition.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Milestone Significance and Future Outlook of the Report<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Mr. Calvin Chenggang Fu and Dr. Rui Ma\u00a0stated:<\/p>

The Global Innovation Finance Index (GIFI) is not simply about calculating a ranking; rankings do not always reflect dynamic and precise changes.<\/p>

We aim to provide a scientific \u201cdevelopment coordinates\u201d and \u201caction roadmap,\u201d and to help fill the gap in research and evaluation of city-level innovation finance development. This is our effort to benchmark international experience, tap local resources, and promote finance in serving the innovation economy.<\/p>

We hope it will help cities and regions at different stages of development identify their positioning in developing innovation finance, thereby encouraging advanced performers, guiding latecomers, and improving overall innovation investment and financing capabilities.<\/p>

We also expect that, through city-level analysis, it can uncover the potential for regional synergistic development, help build regional development strategies based on complementary strengths, and deepen mechanisms for regional coordination.<\/p>

As the\u00a0interim\u00a0research findings\u00a0presented\u00a0to both global and domestic audiences, the Index and the Report have substantial room for iteration and improvement. By continuously refining the evaluation system and expanding data collection channels, this indicator system will become more robust over time.<\/p>

We look forward to working with colleagues from academia, industry, and the policy community worldwide. Starting from this regional- and city-level research on innovation finance and the innovation economy, we aim to contribute Chinese insights to writing a new chapter of Chinese modernization.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The first edition of the Index and the Report is based on data from 2023\u20132025. The compilation and launch were intellectually supported by the Federation of International Financial Centres and International Innovation Centres (IFC\u2022IIC Federation), Chengdu Finance Week\u00a0(CDFW), and the Cross-border Investment & Financing Digital Platform (CIDP). Detailed case studies of more than 20 leading innovation finance cities covered in the Report will also be released globally in bilingual editions soon.<\/p>

D<\/strong>escr<\/strong>iption<\/strong>s<\/strong>\u00a0on t<\/strong>he<\/strong>\u00a0Research Framework and Indicator <\/strong><\/p>

To accommodate objective differences in statistical standards and data availability across countries, the Index establishes two\u00a0indicator systems\u2014international and domestic\u2014within a unified research framework. Under the innovation dimension, a comprehensive evaluation framework has been constructed, encompassing five core factors: innovation input, innovation institutions, innovation entities, patent output, and innovation output. Specific indicators include R&D expenditure of World\u2019s Top 2,500 R&D-Performing Companies, the International Intellectual Property Index, the number of unicorn companies, the volume of PCT applications, and technology contract transaction value, among others.<\/p>

Under the finance dimension, four core factors are included: financial institutions, financial talent, financial services, and financial markets. Specific indicators encompass the number of the World\u2019s Largest\u00a01,000 Banks, the number of CFA members, insurance depth, and value added of the financial sector, among others.<\/p>

Under the development dimension, six core factors are included: infrastructure, legal system, education and culture, economic openness, economic development, and ecological environment. Specific indicators comprise mobile network download speed, number of law firms, number of museums, number of destination countries with direct flight connections, GDP per capita, and the Air Quality Index (AQI), among others.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abstract\uff1aThe first edition of Global Innovation Finance Index (GIFI) was released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"hf_cat_post":[],"class_list":["post-7111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events-conferences-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7111"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7135,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7111\/revisions\/7135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7111"},{"taxonomy":"hf_cat_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cdifi.org.cn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hf_cat_post?post=7111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}