Kuwait 60 out of 126 in ‘innovation index’

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KUWAIT CITY, July 10, (Agencies): Kuwait ranked 60th out of 126 countries in the 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) published Tuesday by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and GII Knowledge Partners.

This year, Kuwait’s position dropped four spots as it ranked 56th in 2017. The 2018 index is calculated as the average of two sub-indices: the Innovation Input Sub-Index measures elements of the national economy which embody innovative activities grouped in five pillars — (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication and (5) Business sophistication.

On the other hand, the Innovation Output Sub-Index captures actual evidence of innovation results divided in two pillars — (1) Knowledge and technology outputs and (2) Creative outputs. Kuwait ranked 89th in Institutions with a score of 54.1, 81st in Human capital and research with a score of 25.5, 46th in Infrastructure with a score of 49.8, 63rd in Market sophistication with a score of 47.1, 111th in Business sophistication with a score of 21.0, 45th in Knowledge and technology outputs with a score of 30.2, and 63rd in Creative outputs with a score of 28.6.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates ranked third among countries in Northern Africa and Western Asia and 38th globally. China broke into the world’s top 20 most-innovative economies as Switzerland retained its No. 1 spot in the Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking. Rounding out the GII 2018 top 10: The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, United States, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Ireland.

Now in its 11th edition, the GII 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 GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending, and scientific and technical publications.

China’s No. 17 ranking this year represents a breakthrough for an economy witnessing rapid transformation guided by government policy prioritizing research and development-intensive ingenuity. While the United States fell back to No. 6 in the GII 2018, it is an innovation powerhouse that has produced many of the world’s leading high-tech firms and life-changing innovations. “China’s rapid rise reflects a strategic direction set by top leadership to develop world-class capacity in innovation and move the structural basis of the economy to more knowledge-intensive industries that rely on innovation to maintain competitive advantage,” says WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “It heralds the arrival of multipolar innovation.” A group of middle- and lower-income economies perform significantly better on innovation than their level of development would predict.

Twenty economies comprise these “innovation achievers” in 2018, three more than in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts six innovation achievers, including Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa, while five economies hail from Eastern Europe.

Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam continue to move up the rankings, steering closer to regional powerhouses like China, Japan, Singapore and Republic of Korea. “Over time, a number of emerging economies stand out for being real movers and shakers in the innovation landscape,” says Soumitra Dutta, Former Dean and Professor of Management at Cornell University. “Aside from China, which is already in the top 25, the middle-income economy closest to this top group is Malaysia. Other interesting cases are India, Iran, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam, which consistently climb in the rankings.”

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