Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the USA and the UK are the world’s most innovative countries, while a group of nations including India, Kenya, and Viet Nam are outperforming their development- level peers, according to the Global Innovation Index 2017 coauthored by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Key findings show the rise of India as an emerging innovation center in Asia, high innovation performance in Sub-Saharan Africa relative to development and an opportunity to improve innovation capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each year, the GII surveys some 130 economies using dozens of metrics, from patent filings to education spending providing decision makers a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic and social growth. In a new feature for the GII, a special section looks at “invention hotspots” around the globe that show the highest density of inventors listed in international patent applications.
Now in its tenth edition, the GII 2017 notes a continued gap in innovative capacity between developed and developing nations and lackluster growth rates for research and development (R&D) activities, both at the government and corporate levels.
GII 2017 Theme: “Innovation Feeding the World”
The theme of the GII 2017, “Innovation Feeding the World,” looks at innovation carried out in agriculture and food systems. Over the next decades, the agriculture and food sector will face an enormous rise in global demand and increased competition for limited natural resources. In addition, it will need to adapt to and help mitigate climate change. Innovation is key to sustaining the productivity growth required to meet this rising demand and to helping enhance the networks that integrate the sustainable food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management known as food systems.
Regional Innovation Leaders
Malaysia is ranked 8th in Asia and 37th worldwide in the GII 2017 report. Malaysia is among the top 10 economies in Asia, behind Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, and that the country was among the middle-income economies that were the closest to the top 25 this year.
The Republic of Korea maintains its top overall rankings in patenting and other IP-related indicators, while ranking second in human capital and research, with its business sector contributing significantly to R&D efforts. Japan, ranked third in the region, is in the top 10 global economies for research and development, information and communication technologies, trade, competition, market scale, knowledge absorption, creation, and diffusion. China continues moving ahead in the overall GII ranking (22nd overall this year), reflecting high scores in business sophistication and knowledge and technology outputs. China this year displays a strong performance in several indicators, including the presence of global R&D companies, research talent in business enterprise, patent applications and other IP-related variables.
Source: Media Release
