Wednesday, July 11, 2012 -
Kazakhstan ranked first in Central Asia and 83rd globally on its innovation performance, according to the recently released Global Innovation Index 2012.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan tied for second in the region and secured spot No. 107 worldwide, measured on their basis of innovation capabilities and results.
Uzbekistan came in fourth among the five regional states to rank 127th spot globally.
The isolated Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan was not included on the annual ranking of 141 countries. The Turkmen government does not regularly publish performance statistics and rarely permits independent assessments of its economy.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) analytical report is co-published by UN agency World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and INSEAD, an international graduate business school.
The GII sees innovation as a key driver of economic growth and prosperity and acknowledges the need for broad innovation that goes beyond simply research and development, and also takes into consideration government institutions, the regulatory environment, infrastructure, and market sophistication.
“The most important innovation gaps exist between countries at different stages of development and, on average, high-income countries outpace countries with less income per capita by a wide margin across the board in all innovation performance metrics,” WIPO said.
Switzerland topped the ranking of countries, with Sweden and Singapore coming 2nd and 3rd.