Georgia Ranked 64th in Global Innovation Index
In this year’s annual Global Innovation Index (GII), published last week, Georgia gained nine places, to be ranked 64th out of 128 countries.
The information was released by the head of Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), Irakli Kashibadze, who says the better position was obtained due to the country’s recent push in innovation-oriented policies and opening of new facilities that support entrepreneurship and creativity.
“Georgia joined the list of countries that have made rapid development in innovations and the country's data has improved in many directions,” he stated at the press-conference.
Kashibadze noted that with its recent development, Georgia left behind many countries- like Brazil, Kazakhstan and India.
He also underlined that the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development founded GITA just two years ago and since then numerous interesting projects regarding the development of innovation infrastructure have been carried out.
“Different laboratories have opened recently which promote innovative projects. As a result, Georgia can enjoy a better position in the international rankings than before,” Kashibadze said.
The Global Innovation Index 2016 (GII), in its 9th edition this year, is co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, a specialized agency of the United Nations).
Published annually since 2007, the GII is now a leading benchmarking tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world.
The core of the GII Report consists of a ranking of world economies’ innovation capabilities and results. Recognizing the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth and prosperity, and the need for a broad horizontal vision of innovation applicable to developed and emerging economies, the GII includes indicators that go beyond the traditional measures of innovation such as the level of research and development.
The GII 2016 was calculated as the average of two sub-indices. The Innovation Input Sub-Index gauges elements of the national economy which embody innovative activities grouped in five pillars: Institutions, Human capital and research, Infrastructure, Market sophistication, and Business sophistication. The Innovation Output Sub-Index captures actual evidence of innovation results, divided into two pillars: Knowledge and Technology Outputs, and Creative Outputs.
The top five countries of the GII 2016 are Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the US and Finland.
Thea Morrison