Singapore Diary: Singapore Top In Asia For Innovation

By Massita Ahmad Bernama's correspondent in Singapore Massita Ahmad shares her take from across the Causeway. SINGAPORE, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- While Malaysia is striving to get on the innovation bandwagon, Singapore is edging closer to the ranks of innovation monoliths such as Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom (UK), United States (US) and Finland. The republic earned a top in Asia ranking and scaled up a spot to sixth position amongst 128 nations in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016 report. The results were released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which compared the innovation performance of economies worldwide. Switzerland, Sweden, UK, US and Finland claimed the first five spots. GII 2016 also ranked Singapore top in the world in the Innovation Input Sub-Index, which gauges elements in the national economy that enable innovation activities. These include a country's political, regulatory and business environment, education, research and development (R&D), infrastructure, ecological sustainability, credit and investment, trade, competition and market scale, knowledge workers, innovation linkages and knowledge absorption. Singapore's most significant improvements since 2015 are seen in five indicators. They are expenditure on education up nine spots, information and communications technology (ICT) services imports up 47 spots, intellectual property (IP) receipts up six spots, ICT Services exports up 11 spots, and trademarks by origin up 11 spots. These results are testament to Singapore's winning strategy of investing in innovation as a key priority, supported by a steady flow of R&D spending for its economic growth. Earlier this year, the republic unveiled a S$19 billion (S$1 = RM2.99) plan to support its R&D efforts over the next five years. The plan is to aid and translate research into solutions that address national challenges, build up innovation and technology adoption in companies, and drive economic growth through value creation. The GII and leading international surveys consistently rank Singapore as one of the best in the world in global innovation and competitiveness. The country is ranked fourth in the world and top in Asia for having the best IP protection in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2015/2016. The US Global Intellectual Property Center's International IP Index 2016 had similarly ranked Singapore as top in Asia for its IP environment. "The future of our world economy is driven by innovation and technology," Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) Daren Tang said. "While we are heartened by Singapore's continued strong performance in the GII, we will spare no efforts in driving a global innovation mindset at the entrepreneur, company and national levels, as well as encourage further discussions on fresh governance frameworks and policies for Singapore to remain competitive." "As a global partner to all our stakeholders for an innovation-driven economy, IPOS is steadfast in our mission to foster innovation and creativity by building a robust IP-enabled ecosystem that will contribute towards Singapore’s future growth," he said. IPOS, a statutory board under the Ministry of Law, develops the right legal regime and business ecosystem to support an innovation-driven economy, build IP skills and expertise, and foster innovation and creativity for Singapore's future growth. GII ranks the innovation performance of 128 countries and economies around the world, based on 82 indicators with its latest edition explores the impact of innovation-oriented policies on economic growth and development. High-income and developing countries alike are seeking innovation-driven growth through different strategies. "Some countries are successfully improving their innovation capacity, while others still struggle," the report added. --BERNAMA