Serbia and its innovation ecosystem ranked 55th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2022 published today, which is one place lower than the previous year, the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) announced.
It was stated that in terms of innovation performance, Serbia is the leader in the region, and among the top 10 countries with an upper middle income level, among which are China, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Romania…
GII tracks global innovation trends in 132 countries. A total of 81 indicators are evaluated in two categories: support and investment in innovation (quality of regulations, education system, investment in research and development, development of IT and general infrastructure, investment in innovators) and innovation results (number of created applications, patents, value of IT exports) service).
“The global index of innovation, despite some shortcomings, gives very concrete insights into what further priorities should be. We stand better among the criteria that evaluate support for innovation and investment in innovation than in the part that measures the results of innovation. That is why it is important that we continue to strengthen cooperation between science and business and easier access for innovators to financing, because this will bring results in terms of new and more innovative products,” said Dušan Vasiljević, Director for Competitiveness and Investments at NALED, about Serbia.
According to him, there is the most room for improvement in the cooperation between science and business, investment of the private sector in research and development, access to alternative sources of financing, as well as in the development of clusters.
As it was announced, in the list of European countries, Serbia jumped two steps and now occupies the 32nd place out of a total of 39 countries, but it is still below the European average according to the index of innovation.
In the region behind Serbia are Montenegro, which occupies the 60th position, followed by North Macedonia in the 66th place, while BiH (70) and Albania (84) lag behind.
The champion of innovation this year is Switzerland, while the USA is in second place and Sweden in third place, and at the top of the list are also Britain, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Finland and Denmark.