BEIJING, Oct. 25 -- The China Innovation Index, a barometer of the country's innovation capability, continued to climb steadily in 2023, official data showed Friday.

The index, introduced in 2005, increased by 6 percent from the 2022 level to 165.3 last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

"The trend of China's Innovation Index indicates that the country's level of innovative development is steadily advancing, the innovation environment is improving, investment in innovation continues to rise, the output of innovation is rapidly growing, and the effectiveness of innovation is steadily advancing, which all provide solid support for high-quality development," said Lin Mei, a statistician with NBS.

Following are some highlights of the country's achievements in innovation capability for the year 2023:

-- The sub-index measuring the proportion of companies enjoying tax deductions showed a rapid increase in 2023, rising by 24 percent from the previous year.

-- China's research and development (R&D) investment jumped 8.4 percent year on year to reach around 3.34 trillion yuan (about 469.8 billion U.S. dollars), the second-largest in the world.

-- By the end of 2023, the number of effective invention patents in China exceeded 4 million for the first time, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.4 percent.

-- In 2023, China's labor productivity was 161,615 yuan per person, an increase of 5.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Technological innovation has promoted the improvement of resource utilization efficiency, empowered the transformation and upgrading of industries, and effectively driven the continuous enhancement of industrial competitiveness, the NBS said.