UAE claims top spot in Mena global innovation rankings

The UAE is ranked 36th worldwide. — KT file photo

The UAE has topped this year’s Global Innovation Index in the Middle East and North Africa while improving its global position by two spots.

Globally, the UAE ranked 36th in the 2014 index compared to 38th last year. Four Gulf countries improved their rankings this year while two went down in the index. Kuwait slipped 19 spots to 69 and Qatar fell to 47. The index shows Saudi Arabia jumped by four spots to 38, Bahrain improved five places to 62 and Oman increased its ranking to 75 compared to 80.

The index was released jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Cornell University, Insead and its Global Innovation Index (GII) 2014 edition knowledge partners, the Confederation of Indian Industry, du and Huawei.

Amid a newly-documented slowdown in the growth of global research and development, the theme of the GII 2014 is “The Human Factor in Innovation”, exploring the role of human capital in the innovation process and underlining the growing interest that firms and governments have shown in identifying and energising creative individuals and teams.

“It is without a doubt that this year’s theme, the ‘Human Factor in Innovation’, is at the centre of the UAE government’s Vision 2021 of becoming a knowledge-based economy. A core pillar of this vision is to actively embed digital solutions in everyday lives to guarantee efficient connectedness among citizens, researchers, entrepreneurs, businesses and government,” du chief executive officer Osman Sultan said in the report. Sultan said the UAE’s Smart Government and Dubai’s Smart City initiatives will pave the way for some of the most innovative digital applications available, which in turn will further enable the human factor through better, faster, and smarter communication and knowledge diffusion.

“That is what a smart city is all about — creating a better life for people in a happier, more connected world,” he added.

The UAE is quickly transforming itself from an oil-based economy to an innovative, knowledge-based economy. In fact, knowledge-based industries and services now make up a greater part of the UAE’s GDP than oil revenues, having grown from 32.1 per cent in 2001 to 37.5 per cent in 2012. By moving towards a knowledge-based economy, the UAE has diversified its economy and positioned itself as a key player in real estate, renewable energy, and aviation; it has also become a global hub for trade and logistics, financial services, and tourism. It has done this by innovating and aspiring to game changing developments: the UAE is home to the world’s tallest tower and its most sustainable eco-city, one of the world’s largest airlines, and state-of-the art infrastructure and smart government services — all helping it to move away from simply localising external innovation to developing its own intellectual property and creative outputs.

GII 2014 surveys 143 economies around the world, using 81 indicators to gauge both their innovation capabilities and measurable results. Published annually since 2007, the GII is now a leading benchmarking tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insights into the state of innovation around the world. This year’s study benefits from the experience of its knowledge partners, as well as an advisory board of 14 international experts.

Human capital is fundamental to all innovative change: a well-educated and highly-skilled population and workforce are a necessary condition for the potential of innovation to be realised. To this end, the UAE has advanced its human capital on several fronts; the country has evolved into a melting pot that taps into the experiences and perspectives of people from more than 200 different nations, and its population has grown enormously from 1975 to 2012 — much more than the global average growth rate. It currently boasts one of the most advanced education systems in the Mena region, thanks to continuous investments across all education levels.

Globally, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Sweden topped this year’s GII while sub-Saharan Africa posted significant regional improvement in the annual rankings.

The GII 2014 confirms the persistence of global innovation divides. Among the top 10 and top 25, rankings have changed but the list of economies remains unaltered.

Bruno Lanvin, executive director for Global Indices at Insead and co-author of the report, said: “As innovation becomes a global game, a growing number of emerging economies are confronted with complex issues whereby ‘brain gain’ can only be generated through a delicate balance between talents outflows where citizens seeking an education abroad and inflows where high performers return home to innovate and create local jobs, and diasporas contribute to national competitiveness. Around the world, we see encouraging signs that this is happening.”

— abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com