China's innovation ability has improved steadily, ranking 19th amongst the 40 principle countries in the world, according to the report "National Innovation Index 2014" released by Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Development on Wednesday.

The report notes that China's main index of innovation has reached the world advanced level, with a better trend in long-term development. In 2013, China R & D investment reached $ 191.21 billion, surpassing Japan for the first time, and rising to No. 2 in the world. International scientific papers (SCI) have been improved both in quantity and quality. The number of papers ranked second in the world and the number of highly cited papers ranked No. 4 in the world. The number of domestic patent applications has reached first in the world. The proportion of exports of high-tech ranked No. 2 and knowledge-intensive service industry ranked No. 3 in the world.

According to the report, the pattern of global innovation does not change significantly. The top ten innovative countries remained unchanged. United States, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea and Israel are still the 5 most innovative countries in the world. China's National Innovation Index scored 68.4, up 3.2 points over the previous year, positioned in the second-tier.