At the request of the Chinese authorities, the OECD and China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) jointly carried out an OECD review of the Chinese national innovation system (NIS) and policy. The final report was published in September 2008 (see www.oecd.org/sti/innovation/reviews/china).

The review consisted of four modules, namely: NIS policy and institutional analysis, human resources in science and technology, globalisation of R&D, and statistical indicators on science and technology.

As part of the indicator module, an OECD-MOST Workshop on Indicators for Assessing National Innovation Systems was held in Chongqing, China, in October 2006. This working paper is an updated and revised version of the workshop background document, to include the latest data on China’s progress towards a knowledge-based economy.