China ranked 21st in terms of innovative abilities among the world's 40 most innovative countries, according to a report issued by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED) on Thursday.

In the report, China's innovative ability garnered 57.9 points based on a scale of 100 with the United States getting 100 points at the top.

The report, China's first on national innovation ability, was mainly based on data from the World Bank, the National Science Foundation of the United States and China's National Bureau of Statistics.

According to the report, China ranked first in terms of the number of research personnel and the export of high-tech products. It ranked fourth in total research and development (R&D) investment and third in terms of the number of authorized patents.

To better supervise and assess China's drive to transform itself into an innovative country, CASTED executive vice president Wang Yuan said that the report relied on an assessment system consisting of five major indices and 31 secondary indices.

Among the five major indices, China's innovation resource and knowledge creation both ranked 33rd in spite of climbing five and six places, respectively, from its 2000 rankings.

The rank in innovation performance saw a jump to the ninth spot, up 23 places from 2000 rankings. The country managed to rank 23rd in innovation environment.

"Although China has a scale advantage in innovation resource and knowledge creation, it still has a big gap in innovation efficiency, intensity and quality compared to developed countries," Wang said.

China is expected to become an innovative country by 2020, a time when scientific progress is predicted to contribute 60 percent of the nation's economic development and R&D investment would jump to 2.5 percent of the GDP, according to the country's scientific and technological development blueprint.

The United States ranks first in the report, followed by Switzerland, the Republic of Korea and Japan.