China climbs up global innovation league

Since the Economist Intelligence Unit first published its global innovation index two years ago, China has moved up from 59th to 54th in the rankings, achieving an improvement that it was thought would take five years in just two. But the new study found that while while the emerging markets are moving up the pecking order, the developed world still hogs the top spots—Japan and Switzerland remain first and second respectively in the league table. The UK remains in the same 18th place it occupied when the previous index was compiled for the period 2002 – 2006. That puts it behind EU neighbours Germany (6th), France (12th) and Belgium (14th). The report includes innovation predictions for the next five years, and more gains for the emerging world are expected. But even so, developed countries will not lose their status as the most innovative in the world. Japan, the US and European countries such as Switzerland, Finland, Germany and Sweden will still rank among the top 10 globally in 2013. But countries such as China, India and South Africa will continue to rise up the innovation rankings, albeit from a much lower level. The Economist Intelligence Unit measures innovation performance by the number of patents granted to people from different countries by the patent offices of the US, the European Union and Japan. The index also looks at factors that help or hinder the ability to innovate, such as the amount of research and development (R&D) undertaken and the technical skills of the workforce. Economist Intelligence Unit director Nigel Holloway (pictured) said: “Innovation flourishes where countries combine investment in education and research with a sound business environment. For China to sustain its momentum, it will have to address factors such as weak protection of intellectual property, the restriction on the flow of scientific ideas and excessive red tape.” The top 20 in the global innovation rankings are: 1. Japan 2. Switzerland 3. Finland 4. U.S. 5. Sweden 6. Germany 7. Taiwan 8. Netherlands 9. Israel 10. Denmark 11. South Korea 12. Austria 13. France 14. Canada 15. Belgium 16. Singapore 17. Norway 18. UK 19. Ireland 20. Australia More details can be found at www.eiu.com/sponsor/cisco/innovationindex09