Nanshan once again ranked first in the country’s top 100 innovative districts in 2024, taking the first place for seven straight years, according to the latest ranking compiled by CCID Consulting Urban Economic Research Center.

The list is based on an evaluation index system, which includes four primary indicators such as innovation ecology, innovation power, innovation entities and innovation achievements and 16 secondary indicators like regional GDP, R&D investment intensity and the number of national high-tech enterprises.

Seven districts in Shenzhen, namely Nanshan, Bao’an, Longgang, Futian, Longhua, Guangming and Luohu, entered the top 100 list.

In 2023, the R&D investment of Nanshan accounted for 6.3% of its local GDP, with 123,000 valid invention patents in China, accounting for 41.4% of the city’s total, data showed.

The number of invention patents per 10,000 people stood at 676.9, about 23 times that of the whole country. Mindray, DJI and other enterprises won three gold awards, five silver awards, and 27 excellence awards at the 24th China Patent Award. Twelve projects won the first prize of Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Award.

Nanshan added 471 national high-tech enterprises last year, with the total number exceeding 5,000. The district increased 93 national-level “little giant” enterprises, with a total of 233 and accounting for more than 30% of the city’s total.

“Little giant” firms are small enterprises that are still in the early stage of development and focus on the new generations of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and other high-end fields.