Vietnam rises 2 places in the global innovation index.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced the 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking report on the evening of July 10th.

Accordingly, Vietnam continued to improve by 2 places compared to 2017 and 14 places compared to 2016, reaching position 45/126, with scores higher than the average in all 7 pillars.

Vietnam's national innovation index continued to rise by two positions, with high scores across all seven pillars.

The 2018 GII index results are important evidence of the decisive and comprehensive direction of the Government, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, and the efforts of ministries, sectors, and localities in building and implementing synchronized and practical solutions to improve the business environment, enhance national competitiveness, and improve national innovation capacity.

Specifically, macroeconomic institutions continued to improve significantly, notably the Law Enforcement Effectiveness Index rose sharply from 74th to 57th place; the Business Environment Index continued to improve, increasing by 10 places.

The group of indicators related to Market Status continues to improve, with the Credit indicator rising from 17th to 15th place. These indicators reflect the government's guidance and solutions in ensuring macroeconomic stability and major economic balances, along with solutions focused on reducing the average lending interest rate of the commercial banking system, promoting credit growth directed towards priority sectors, and supporting economic growth.

The Business Etiquette index group improved by 7 ranks, ranking second only to Institutions in terms of improvement. Most notably, the index for Enterprise Spending on Technological Innovation rose 23 ranks to 13th, the index for Enterprise Spending on Research and Development rose 4 ranks to 48th, and the index for University-Enterprise Collaboration rose 17 ranks to 59th.

Vietnam has been highly praised by WIPO for its efforts at the highest level. (Photo: WIPO)

Notably, with the new online innovation index, the Mobile App Creation index, an indicator of digital economic development, Vietnam is ranked 16th, up from 52nd in 2017 for uploading videos to YouTube.

Commenting on Vietnam's rise in the Innovation Index, Sacha Wunsch-Wincent, a senior expert at WIPO, said that in this year's ranking, Vietnam stands out as a special country for two reasons.

Firstly, Vietnam has consistently risen in the global innovation rankings. Secondly, Vietnam has consistently been recognized as a leading country in innovation serving economic development. Vietnam is also the only country with leadership from the Prime Minister, through a resolution establishing a special group of experts, encompassing various ministries and agencies, to jointly promote innovation policies.

Mr. Sacha Wunsch-Wincent, senior expert at WIPO. Photo: WIPO.

In addition to maintaining and improving the achievements of the past, the Ministry of Science and Technology proposes several solutions focusing on improving the indicators where Vietnam is currently ranked weak or showing a declining trend in recent years.

The Global Innovation Index (GII) is a tool for assessing and ranking the innovation capacity of countries, developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in collaboration with INSEAD Institute, France, and Cornell University, USA.