New Zealand scores highly as a global innovator

New Zealand has been confirmed as one of the world’s most innovative nations in the recently released 2012 “Global Innovation Index”. Our ranking of 13 out of 141 countries was an improvement on last year’s 15th position. We also placed third highest in the ‘Southeast Asia and Oceania’ region, behind Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Global Innovation Index is published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and graduate business school INSEAD. Recognising that innovation is a key driver of economic growth and prosperity, it assesses five main ‘input’ elements of a country’s national economy that enable active innovation: institutions; human capital and research; infrastructure; market sophistication; and business sophistication. Two further ‘output’ pillars capture actual evidence of innovation outputs: knowledge and technology outputs; and creative outputs.

New Zealand scored highly across all elements, but was ranked third in the world for our institutions (political, regulatory and business environment). We also placed in the top 15 for creative outputs, including goods and services and online creativity. New Zealand also ranked first in the world in a number of specialised areas under the broad headings, including ease of starting a business, ease of protecting investors and the ratio of new businesses to total population.

The 2012 index confirms New Zealand’s credentials as a creative and adaptable partner for Viet Nam and other regional countries, with a strong knowledge-based economy and multiple niche areas of world-class expertise.

Viet Nam ranked 76th in this year’s Global Innovation Index, but was the seventh highest lower-middle income economy.

The full 2012 index report can be accessed here