The Philippines climbed three spots to 56th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023 out of 132 economies, with the country’s innovation inputs improving for the first time since 2020, and the country joining a group of middle-income economies that rose the fastest in the latest ranking over the last decade.

The GII 2023 report, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), takes the pulse of innovation against a background of an economic and geopolitical environment fraught with uncertainty. It reveals the most innovative economies in the world, ranking the innovation performance of 132 economies while highlighting innovation strengths and weaknesses.

Envisioned to capture as complete a picture of innovation as possible, the GII comprises around 80 indicators, including measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure and knowledge creation of each economy.

The Philippines ranked highest in the pillars of Business sophistication (38th), Knowledge and technology outputs (46th) and Market sophistication (55th) but lowest in Human capital and research (88th), Infrastructure (86th) and Institutions (79th).

Notably, the report said that together with China, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran (62nd), the Türkiye, Viet Nam, and Indonesia, the Philippines joined the group of middle-income economies within the GII top 65 that climbed fastest in the GII ranking over the last decade.

The report also showed that the country’s continued performance above expectations for its level of development based on its GDP per capita as it effectively turned costly innovation investments into more and higher-quality outputs.

Based on the report, the Philippines’ innovation inputs improved for the first time since 2020, jumping by seven spots to 69th from 76th in 2022 and by 13 spots from 82nd in 2018 – the year before the game-changing Philippine Innovation Law and Philippine Startup Act came into law.

The report cited the Philippines, along with Morocco (70th), for being able to keep their innovation overperformer status for a fifth time.

The country’s improved ranking was supported by higher performance of the Credit sub-pillar, which moved out from being a weakness last year and soared by 57 spots this year (from 115th to 58th), reflecting improved accessibility and availability of financing which had been the primary obstacles to startups.

Investments also grew by four rungs, from 55th to 51st, as more venture capitalists invested in the country, raising venture capital deals received both in number and in value.

Innovation linkages also rose by 12 spots to 79th from 91st as the University-Industry R&D Collaboration indicator grew by seven spots (from 64th to 57th).

The latest GII report, however, showed a decline in innovation outputs to 52nd from 51st in 2022 and 40th in 2021.

Overall, the latest report was topbilled by Switzerland, Sweden, US, UK, and Singapore. Other Asean countries ahead of the Philippines are Malaysia (36th), Thailand (43RD), and Vietnam (46th).

Rowel S. Barba, Director General of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), said that the improvement of the Philippine innovation ranking is a welcome development. “But we have to continue being dissatisfied – dissatisfied not just in our current posture in the global innovation map but in the current way of things around us, whether products, solutions, systems, processes or practices. We need to develop among Filipinos a mindset that continuously innovates to challenge the norm until such a time that innovating becomes our norm,” said Barba.

He noted that the rise in innovation inputs could mean that the fundamental resources and conditions that make a vibrant innovation ecosystem are “within our reach.”
Likewise, he emphasized on the need for stronger collaboration across the innovation terrains and highlighting the bigger role of the Innovation and Technology Support Offices Program.

He also called on Filipinos to urgently produce more knowledge assets that positively impact markets and society to reverse the decline in innovation outputs.
At the same time, he recognized that innovating in these times will also be challenging amid high inflation, monetary tightening policies and geopolitical tensions, echoing the opinion of WIPO Director General Daren Tang as causes for caution.

The report noted that after a boom in 2021, innovation finance through venture capital investments declined by 40 percent last year while international patent applications recorded the slowest rate of increase since 2009, although still achieving a record 280,000 applications.

As a member of the National Innovation Council and ex-officio member of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Council, Barba said that IPOPHL will continue to innovate our systems and practices to make the IP protection process much more efficient and accessible for rights holders.

"We will continue to expand the reach of our services, development assistance and awareness campaigns so that more Filipinos across the regions could take advantage and be part of our fast improving innovation environment," he said.

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