Participants to the 4th Global Digital Trade Expo watch a robotic dog on Sept 25, in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. The expo, held from Sept 25-29, includes a main pavilion named "future tech arena" and seven themed zones - AI, digital culture & entertainment, smart mobility, and more - showcasing advanced technologies such as generative AI and multimodal sensory interaction. [Photo/Li Hao]

China's innovation index went up by 5.3 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, a survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, highlighting that country's scientific and technological innovation capacity continuing to improve.

The survey said that China's innovation index reached 174.2 in 2024 (with 2015 as the base year of 100), reflecting a year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent.

The major components of the index — innovation environment sub-index, innovation input index, innovation output index, and innovation performance index, all witnessed increases.

The results indicate that China's innovation index has maintained steady growth since 2024, with the country's scientific and technological innovation capacity continuing to improve, the NBS said.

Innovation facilitated output grew rapidly, new drivers of development continued to strengthen, providing strong support for high-quality economic development, NBS said.