13 The government plays a vital role in improving the innovation capacity of the economy 16. Empirical practice has proved that effective government policies are the foundation for fostering the development of a prosperous technology and innovation ecosystem. However, compared with many other advanced economies, Hong Kong started late in the fostering of technology and innovation industries. In this chapter, we will compare the innovation activities and performance among Hong Kong and other economies. 2.1 Global Snapshot: Comparison with Other Economies 2.1.1 Selected economies and reason for the selection: Selecting economies for comparison is a crucial step in benchmarking. Sweden, Finland, Singapore and Israel have excelled in technology and innovation, and are similar to Hong Kong in terms of the level of economic development and population. Therefore, these economies, together with Mainland China and Hong Kong, were selected for comparison. Benchmarking is carried out according to the following criteria: • Ranking of knowledge and technological output competitiveness in the Global Innovation Index • Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) • Number of research and development personnel (per million people) • Number of granted patent rights (per million people) • Intellectual property income 2 Current Status of Hong Kong’s Technology and Innovation Industriesv 16 R.Richard Nelson (1993) National Innovation Systems: a Comparative Analysis, Oxford University Press
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