THE Philippines posted a significant improvement in innovation as it jumped 19 places to rank 54th among 129 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in a statement, noted the "important progress" that the Philippines made along with Vietnam, which climbed three slots to settle at 42nd.
The Philippines ranked 73rd in 2018 with a score of 31.56. This year, the Philippines was ranked 54th with a score of 36.18.
In a separate statement, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the country’s scores significantly increased in five of the GII’s eight pillars, namely, institutions, infrastructure, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, and creative outputs.
The GII 2019 notes that among the Philippines’s strengths are the percentage of tertiary graduates in science and engineering; e-participation; percentage of firms offering formal training; trade, competition, and market scale; knowledge absorption; knowledge diffusion; and creative goods exports.
“This is great news for our nation and our innovation ecosystem as a whole. It recognizes the efforts of the various government agencies like DTI, DOST, and NEDA in advancing innovation among our people and MSMEs, creating an innovative culture, as well as in building linkages with academe and industry,” said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
“With President Duterte’s signing into law of the Philippine Innovation Act (Republic Act 11293) and Innovative Startup Act (RA 11337), we expect further improvements in our ranking as we intensify our efforts to build our country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, accelerate and globalize our startups, and better prepare our MSMEs and industries for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Lopez added.
The DTI and other departments have drawn up the Inclusive Filipinnovation and Entrepreneurship Roadmap, which aims to bridge the gaps in the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem towards fostering connected and creative communities across the country.
In Southeast Asia, the top-ranked countries in the GII 2019 are Singapore (8), Republic of Korea (11), Hong Kong, China (13), and China (14).
The WIPO said the Philippines' leap may be traced to some changes in the index as well as new metrics that give a "more thorough assessment of its innovative performance".
The index is released jointly by WIPO, Cornell University, Insead and the 2019 GII Knowledge Partners, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Dassault Systèmes - the 3DExperience Company - and the National Confederation of Industry (CNI)–Brazil and Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae).
The WIPO is a United Nations agency that serves as the global forum for intellectual property (IP) services, policy, information and cooperation. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)