China is developing an index to measure its innovative progress, said Xu Yifan, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS).

The NBS is now conducting research on China's progress in building an innovation-oriented country, and hopes to come up with a series of indices with targeted values, said Xu at a press conference held on Monday.

Many areas in China have started to build their own index to measure progress on innovation, Xu said. China has made innovation its national strategy in a bid to enhance the country's innovative ability.

Xu said his bureau is to issue a special report on China's innovation development in coming October at the annual China Economic Growth Forum which is to be held in Suzhou, in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The forum, with the theme of "Indigenous Innovation and China Economic Growth", is co-sponsored by NBS and local governments.

Officials from central and local governments, influential economists, as well as Nobel Prize winners and some leaders from the top 500 enterprises are expected to attend the forum.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2006)