Argentina is one of the two countries that have fallen the most in an international innovation ranking

Last year, Argentina lost six places in world ranking of “most innovative economies”: from 45th to 51st position and became one of the nations with the greatest slippage in the Bloomberg Innovation Index, with Algeria.

The index, compiled by Bloomberg, takes 200 economies, which are rated on a scale of 0 to 100 across seven categories (research and development spending, manufacturing capacity, and concentration of high-tech state-owned enterprises) and only publishes the list of the 60 best countries located. Among the Latin American countries, the best placed was Brazil, in 46th position. While Chile and Uruguay (which was ranked for the first time) were below Argentina at places 54 and 56 respectively.

Among the Latin American countries, the best ranked was Brazil, in 46th position. While Chile and Uruguay (which was ranked for the first time) were below Argentina at places 54 and 56 respectively.

Globally, first place went to South Korea, while the United States ceased to be in the top ten, which for the most part includes European countries. At the top of the list, Korea replaced Germany, which fell to fourth place. “The Asian nation has led the index for seven of the nine years in which it was published. Singapore and Switzerland each climbed one place to rank second and third, ”explains the Bloomberg report.

“The rankings reflect a world in which the fight against COVID-19 has brought innovation to the forefront, from government efforts to contain the pandemic, to the digital infrastructure that has enabled economies to overcome it and the race to overcome it. vaccine development, ”added.

However, much of the data published by Bloomberg comes from before the coronavirus pandemic. But, nonetheless, many of the top countries in the index, such as Korea, Germany and Israel, are also the ones that have led some areas of the pandemic response, such as contact tracing or rapid vaccination of their population.

American companies like Zoom and vaccine maker Pfizer have been among the “emblems” of innovation throughout the past year. This resulted in a high ranking of the United States in the category of density of high-tech companies.

Wuhan officials first demonstrated that screening 10 million people for the coronavirus was feasible within weeks

“The pandemic has also highlighted another kind of advance, which has more to do with politics and organization than with technology or research,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist told Bloomberg. Paul Romer.

“We have to recognize that the available metrics overlook important dimensions of innovation,” said Romer, a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “Wuhan officials have shown for the first time that 10 million city residents can be tested for the coronavirus within weeks. It was a very important public health innovation. “

Singapore, which ranks second, recently allocated budget funds to help workers and businesses transition to a digital economy, it also performs well in manufacturing and its globally competitive universities place it at the top of the higher education indicator. Switzerland, a leader in financial and biological technologies, ranks first in both research categories of the index.

The two biggest economies, United States Yes China, account for a large part of global innovation and last year both lowered their rankings. The United States, which topped the top innovation index in 2013, fell two places to 11th place and China dropped one place to 16th place in the rankings.

“The country does poorly in higher education, even though American universities are world famous. This poor performance has likely been compounded by barriers for international students, which are generally prominent in science and technology courses, first because of the Trump administration’s visa policies, and then because of the pandemic ” , underlines the report.

Sung Won’s son, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says the United States is always at the forefront, but today their innovations come from small companies and take longer to reach consumers. “There are a lot of new ideas from a lot of start-ups,” he told Bloomberg. “It will take time for these ideas to translate into marketable products.”

“The intensifying competition between the United States and China is redefining the innovation landscape. For the United States, fear of losing intellectual property to a geopolitical rival represents less support for the open innovation system. For China, the fear of being isolated from foreign technology accelerates investment in R&D capacities in the country, ”the report explains.

Read on:

AFIP already allows employees in a dependent relationship to recover the levy of 35% for the purchase of dollars

“Doctor Catastrophe” vs Bitcoin: Economist who anticipated 2008 crisis says cryptocurrency is bubble destined to burst

Monotributists and companies: the government has specified who should return the aid received by the pandemic