UAE climbs six places on innovation index

The UAE has climbed six places in this year’s Global Innovation Index to rank 35th globally and first in the Arab world.

The emirates’ performance was supported by increased data availability and strengths in tertiary inbound mobility, innovation clusters and innovation-driven ICT business model innovation, according to the report co-authored by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Its closest regional competition was Qatar, which stood at 49th, Saudi Arabia in 55th and Kuwait in 56th. Bahrain stood in 66th and Oman ranked 77th.

Switzerland led the index for the seventh consecutive year, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, the US, UK, Denmark, Singapore, Finland, Germany and Ireland topped the list of 130 economies.

High-income economics took 24 out of the top 25 spots with China the exception at 22, having entered the top 25 last year.

“Efforts to bridge the innovation divide have to start with helping emerging economies understand their innovation strengths and weaknesses and create appropriate policies and metrics,” said Soumitra Dutta, dean, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University.

“This has been the GII’s purpose for more than ten years now.”

The UAE aims to be ranked in the top 10 of the index, which uses dozens of metrics including patent filings and education spending, as part of its Vision 2021 objectives.