Japan and South Korea came out on top in a ranking of the most efficient innovators in the Asia-Pacific region, while Myanmar, Pakistan, and Cambodia were listed as the least efficient innovators.
A new Creative Productivity Index developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Economist Intelligence Unit ranked 22 Asian economies according to how efficiently they turned creative inputs into tangible innovation, with the United States and Finland included for comparative purposes.
“As countries seek to innovate to avoid middle-income traps, all governments—especially those with limited resources—need to be sure that their investments boost both efficiency and productivity, benefiting their economies and people, and move to a knowledge-based economy,” said Bindu N. Lohani, vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development at ADB.
This index aims to give policymakers a unique tool to measure progress in fostering creativity and innovation in Asia, he added, noting that creative productivity is an important attribute for knowledge-based economic development.
“While measures will differ by country, policies that make it easier to set up businesses and create flexible labor markets would benefit everyone, as would greater investment in education, skills, information and communications technologies, and Internet access.”
The index uses 36 input indicators to measure the capacity and incentives for innovation, including how many global top 500 universities a country has, the urbanization rate, spending on R&D, protection of intellectual property rights, and corruption and bureaucracy.
The eight output indicators to measure innovation include the number of patents filed, export sophistication, value added to agriculture, and the number of books and films produced.
On innovation inputs alone, Singapore topped the rankings with strong political institutions, protection of intellectual property, and contract enforcement. Among Asian countries, Hong Kong topped the list in terms of innovation outputs due to a high level of export sophistication and its prolific film production industry.
Behind Japan and South Korea, in order of most efficiently innovative, are Taiwan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, Laos, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Fiji, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Cambodia.
As for Finland, the country came up behind overall leader Japan, while the United States followed South Korea.
Photo: Danny Choo
