JINAN, Sept. 20 -- China has been central to the eastward innovation shift, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

WIPO Deputy Director General Wang Binying made the remarks at the 12th China Intellectual Property Annual Conference, which closed on Wednesday in Jinan, Shandong Province. She cited three pieces of data in her keynote speech: seven out of 10 IP applications are being made in Asia, up from 50 percent a decade ago; six of every 10 U.S. dollars spent on research and development are now spent in Asia; and East Asia is home to six of the top 10 global science and technology clusters.

"China has been central to these shifting dynamics," Wang said.

This transformation underscores the growing influence of developing nations and emerging economies as new pillars of innovation -- a shift that should be duly reflected in the global IP ecosystem, the WIPO official said.

According to the 2023 edition of the WIPO's Global Innovation Index, China has 24 sci-tech clusters, up from 21 last year and making China the country with the greatest number of such clusters.

China's remarkable achievements in innovation and output mirror the emergence of new global growth engines, which are inseparable from the great importance the Chinese government attaches to IP strategy and the continuous improvement of the country's IP policies, Wang said.