China shoots up Global Innovation Index

By Enterprise Innovation Editors | May 27, 2009

China is climbing up the world innovation rankings faster than other countries. 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—an improvement Economist Intelligence thought would take five years has been achieved in just two.

According to the Cisco-sponsored study, “A new ranking of the world’s most innovative countries”, other gainers include India and Turkey. However, 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 ranking compares 82 countries by their innovativeness and looks at the factors that bring this about.

According to the report, between 2002-06 and 2004-08, China rose from 59th to 54th in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s innovation index, surpassing expectations. One reason for the jump is that China is making a concerted effort to build a more innovative economy by investing heavily in R&D and education (although weak protection of intellectual property still holds the country back), said the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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.