Singapore shoots past Hong Kong to clinch top spot in Asian innovation index

The country is the 7th most innovative market worldwide.

Singapore has been named as Asia’s most innovative market in the Global Innovation Index 2014 that was released today by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Index is a relative measure of the innovation capability of 143 countries worldwide

The republic, which was in second place last year, overtook former top seed Hong Kong to clinch the first place in this year’s index. Singapore is ranked seventh worldwide, up one spot from eighth place last year.

Hong Kong came in second in the Asian index, followed by Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

“Asian economies continue to drive innovation worldwide, with one fifth of the world’s most innovative markets, according to the Global Innovation Index 2014 (GII). Singapore and Hong Kong SAR, China retained their places in the top 10 global rankings, followed by the Republic of Korea, Japan, China and Malaysia as the top economies for innovation in Asia,” noted the report.

Here’s more from the Global Innovation Index 2014:
Upper-middle income countries such as China and Malaysia, meanwhile, are showing signs of breaking into the top tier of GII countries, positions filled by high income economies since the Index was first published in 2007.

Switzerland topped the global index for the fourth consecutive year, while China achieved the highest year on year improvement, moving from 35th position in 2013 to 29th in 2014.

As the global economy shows signs of recovery, countries worldwide are focusing on maintaining growth and creating jobs.

Asian countries in particular are increasing investment in innovation and providing more employees with training to ensure a high level of output and sustained growth. China, Thailand and Mongolia lead the world in the provision of formal employee training to improve productivity. This illustrates the importance of “Human Factor in Innovation”, which is the theme of this year’s GII.