Here is a report drawn up by the IMF, OECD and the UN to rank international innovation competitiveness. The authors constructed an Innovation Capacity Index (ICI) that draws on a range of available data to correlate the wide-ranging set of relevant factors, policies, and institutional characteristics which play a central role in boosting a nation’s capacity for innovation. In its 2009 edition, the ICI covers 131 countries and identifies over 60 factors that are seen to have a bearing on a country’s ability to create an environment that encourages innovation, such as a nation’s institutional environment, human capital endowment, the presence of social inclusion, the regulatory and legal framework, the infrastructure for research and development, and the adoption and use of information and communication technologies, among others.
The top 25 countries with their ICI scores are:
1. Sweden 82.2
2. Finland 77.8
3. United States 77.5
4. Switzerland 77.0
5. Netherlands 76.6
6. Singapore 76.5
7. Canada 74.8
8. United Kingdom 74.6
9. Norway 73.5
10. New Zealand 73.4
11. Luxembourg 73.3
11. Denmark 73.3
13. Taiwan 72.9
14. Iceland 72.6
15. Japan 72.1
16. Hong Kong 71.3
17. Australia 71.2
18. Ireland 70.5
19. Korea 70.0
20. Germany 68.8
21. Israel 68.2
22. Belgium 67.6
23. Austria 66.7
24. France 65.4
25. Estonia 62.7
And the bottom three are:
129. Haiti 28.7
130. Chad 25.6
131. Afghanistan 24.0
It is notable that China does not do well – it comes in at number 65 with a score of 49.5.
The Executive Summary contains many interesting insights.
Paul Sloane
