Global Innovation Index 2018: Who is at the top, who is down and why?

July 17, 2018

China is up, the United States is down and some developing countries in Africa are outperforming according to the 2018 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII), a publication joint venture of Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization. The index quantifies factors that promote innovation and uses detailed measures for 126 countries covering 90.8% of the world's population and 96.3% of global GDP. Global Finance Uses Similar Measures for The Innovators

What is clear from the GII Report of 2018 is that innovation and wealth are components of a self-reinforcing virtuous circle: innovation can lead to higher productivity means that the same input generates greater output, greater production often results in more innovation.

However, this does not mean that nations in the higher echelons of the rankings can rest on their laurels. As in companies, the investments supported are much better than the fiasco and the countries that have continuously invested in innovation in the face of a difficult economic situation now reap the rewards. The confrontation with the world's scientific and technological powers remains a dubious proposition for many developing countries, but there is a lot of movement within the index, with some countries leaping upward in a way that seemed unimaginable it was not long ago. ] Top 10: the usual suspects

For the eighth consecutive year, Switzerland is number one of the IIG in 2011. How this country of only 8 million people has he managed to keep his first place? since 2011? Healthy in most of the 80 indicators ranging from knowledge-intensive employment to the regulatory environment and collaboration between industry and academia. The same is true for the second countries: the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the United States, Finland, Denmark and Germany. Who owns the number 10 place? Ireland, which defeated Hong Kong (China) in 2015. Since then, no country has entered or left the top 10.

Make American innovation again

There is probably little movement in the top 10, with countries transferring at most one or two positions from one edition of the IIG to the other. This year, however, all eyes were on the United States: is change in the presidential administration a change of direction in innovation? Yes, but not in a good way: the United States lost two places from fourth to sixth place. The US position has deteriorated both in the entry and exit indexes of innovation, falling from a position in the first category to the sixth and two positions in the last category to the seventh. In particular, the United States has lost ground in human capital and research, infrastructure and creative results. Fortunately, it still ranks first in many important indicators such as R & D spending and the quality of universities.

Giants of Asia

Breaking this year for the first time the top 20 is China. The country's No. 17 ranking represents a milestone and reflects its government's policies that prioritize research and innovative projects. Meanwhile, India has slightly improved its position from 60th to 57th place. Is this the only way for these giants? Can China and India continue to follow this dynamic path of innovation over the next few years? Can Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam – who continue to show progress – be able to emulate them? The IIG report points to a powerful inhibitory factor: protectionism, particularly protectionism, which affects technology-intensive sectors, intellectual property and knowledge flows at all levels Defying the Odds in Africa

sub-Saharan Africa is relatively well behaved in the rankings. The GII has designated economies whose performance exceeds at least 10% of their counterparts for their level of GDP as "successful innovators". Since 2012, Africa has more countries among the innovators than any other part of the world. This year, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique have all been innovators. The exploitation of science, technology and skilled labor has enhanced the competitiveness of these economies, which have been able to attract more foreign direct investment and more. to further increase the revenue streams of their businesses. And even though the remaining 16 economies in this region are at levels below 100, nine of them have shown improvement since 2017.

Two-Speed ​​South America [19659004] The top performing countries of Latin America ranking countries are Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico. Brazil occupies the 64th place, having gained five positions since 2017. According to reports, other Latin American countries need to put more emphasis on innovations. Insufficient fiscal incentives, lack of skilled labor, and limited government budgets for science and technology affect the economy of the entire continent. The study reveals that Latin America and the Caribbean include only three high-income economy countries (Chile, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago) and warns that the region has not significantly improved its innovation rates compared to other regions of the world.

The Lights and Shadows of Eastern Europe

This year the region has five innovators. Performance above their level of development would suggest Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia. Among the best winners, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina climbed 10 places and Albania gained nine places. While almost all the countries of Eastern Europe have improved their previous positions, there have been some exceptions, notably Macedonia, which has fallen by more than 20 places from 61st to 84th place, becoming the lowest ranked nation. North Africa and West Asia: less for the rest

Israel is in 11th place (with six impressive points) and the United Arab Emirates dominate all Arab countries at 38 and dominate the region. Other oil-rich Middle Eastern countries are also doing relatively well, but the GII scores, compared to the top three countries in the world, show that the level of production of these high-income economies is low compared to their inputs. In other words, they tend to have less money for their money, noting that the policy should come into play when the high R & D spending is not offset by the results. valid innovation.

Rising Stars

achieved tremendous feats in a very short period of time. It is worth mentioning Egypt, which this year has climbed 10 places to the 95th, and the place of Iran, which has gone from 90th place in 2016 to 75th place in 2017 and to the 65th place in 2018.