The Philippines moved up in ranking in global innovation, leaping 19 slots to place 54th among 129 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019.
The Philippines scored 36.18 this year, higher than the 31.56 in 2018, when it ranked 73rd in the GII.
The GII was released jointly by the Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
It is a detailed quantitative tool that helps global decision makers better understand how to stimulate the innovative activity that drives economic and human development.
The index ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
The WIPO said that among the Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines made “important progress” as it jumped in ranking.
The Department of Trade and Industry said the Philippines’ scores significantly increased in five of the GII’s eight pillars: institutions, infrastructure, business sophistication, knowledge & technology outputs, and creative outputs.
The GII 2019 notes that among the Philippines’s strengths are the percentage of tertiary graduates in science and engineering; e-participation; percentage of firms offering formal training; trade, competition, and market scale; knowledge absorption; knowledge diffusion; and creative goods exports.
“This is great news for our nation and our innovation ecosystem as a whole. It recognizes the efforts of the various government agencies like DTI, DOST, and NEDA in advancing innovation among our people and MSMEs, creating an innovative culture, as well as in building linkages with academe and industry,” said Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez.
“With President Duterte’s signing into law of the Philippine Innovation Act (RA11293) and Innovative Startup Act (RA11337), we expect further improvements in our ranking as we intensify our efforts to build our country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, accelerate and globalize our startups, and better prepare our MSMEs and industries for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he added.
The Philippines has a long way to go compared to its neighbors.
The top-ranked countries in Southeast Asia in the GII 2019 are Singapore (8), Republic of Korea (11), Hong Kong, China (13), and China (14).
China broke into the top 20 most-innovative economies in 2018, ranking 17th. This year, it further moved up to 14th place.
Switzerland retained its number-one spot. (Ventures Cebu)
Comments