By Elijah Felice Rosales, July 26 2019; Business Mirror
http://PHL innovation ranking jumps to 54th
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THE Philippines’s ranking jumped by 19 notches to 54th due to improvements in its scores for institutions, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs and creative outputs in this year’s edition of an index that tracks the innovation performance of countries.
In the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019, the Philippines improved its score to 36.18, from 31.56 in last year’s cycle. This put the country fifth among eight Southeast Asian economies surveyed in the index.
Singapore headed the region by finishing 8th, followed by Malaysia at 35th, Vietnam at 42nd, Thailand at 43rd, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam at 71st, Indonesia at 85th and Cambodia at 98th.
The Philippines was also one of the eight lower middle income economies that was on the upper half of the index, along with Vietnam, Ukraine, Georgia, India, Mongolia and Republic of Moldova.
The country improved in the rankings after its input and output subindices went up from last year. In the GII 2019, Manila scored 41.68 and placed 76th in the innovation input subindex, from 39.18 and ranking 82nd, and posted 30.68 and landed 42nd in the innovation output subindex, from 23.98 and standing 68th.
Among the eight pillars, the Philippines got its highest ranking of 31st in the knowledge and technology outputs on strong showing in knowledge diffusion and knowledge impact.
The country got its worst finish in the market sophistication indicator, placing 110th among the economies surveyed. The government’s investment policy and credit programs were rated among the worst in the world, and were labeled as a weakness of the Philippines.
This year’s edition of the GII ranked 129 economies, higher than the 126 in the 2018 edition.
In a statement, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the government expects the Philippines to improve its ranking in the index next year as the country has a more conducive innovation environment for creators and entrepreneurs, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“With President Duterte’s signing into law of the Philippine Innovation Act and Innovative Startup Act, 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 MSMEs and industries for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Lopez said.