Singapore Is Top In Asia And 6th For Innovation Worldwide
24 August 2016
Singapore earned a top in Asia ranking and scaled up a spot to sixth position amongst 128 nations in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016 report. The results, released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, which compare the innovation performance of economies worldwide, showed that the republic is edging closer to innovation monoliths such as Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the US and Finland, that claimed the first five spots.
A distinguished, annual collaborative effort between Cornell University, INSEAD, WIPO and other knowledge partners, GII 2016 also ranked Singapore top in the world in the Innovation Input Sub-Index, which gauges elements in the national economy that enable innovation activities. These include a country’s political, regulatory and business environment, education, research and development, infrastructure, ecological sustainability, credit and investment, trade, competition and market scale, knowledge workers, innovation linkages and knowledge absorption.
Singapore’s most significant improvements since 2015 are seen in five indicators: expenditure on education (up nine spots), ICT services imports (up 47 spots), IP receipts (up 6 spots), ICT Services exports (up 11 spots), and trademarks by origin (up 11 spots). These results are testament to Singapore’s winning strategy of investing in innovation as a key priority, supported by a steady flow of R&D spending for its economic growth.
Earlier this year, the republic unveiled a S$19-billion plan to support its R&D efforts over the next five years, to aid and translate research into solutions that address national challenges, build up innovation and technology adoption in companies, and drive economic growth through value creation.
The GII and leading international surveys consistently rank Singapore as one of the best in the world in global innovation and competitiveness. The country is ranked fourth in the world and top in Asia for having the best IP protection in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2015/2016. The US Global Intellectual Property Center's International IP Index 2016 had similarly ranked Singapore as top in Asia for its IP environment.
“The future of our world economy is driven by innovation and technology. While we are heartened by Singapore’s continued strong performance in the GII, we will spare no efforts in driving a global innovation mindset at entrepreneur, company and national levels, as well as encouraging further discussions on fresh governance frameworks and policies for Singapore to remain competitive,” says Daren Tang, chief executive at IPOS. “As a global partner to all our stakeholders for an innovation-driven economy, IPOS is steadfast in our mission to foster innovation and creativity by building a robust IP-enabled ecosystem that will contribute towards Singapore’s future growth.”
