MANILA—The Philippines continues to prove that it is among the world’s most innovative economies as it ranked 50^th out of 131 countries in 2020 as reported in the annual Global Innovation Index (GII), up from 54^th last year. This is the first time that the Philippines has breached the top 50 of the GII, which recognizes the country as an “innovation achiever” for the second year in a row.  

“Together with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), and other national government agencies, we are delighted to see that our efforts to develop the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem are bearing fruit,” said Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez.  

“We are also committed to sustaining our gains in fostering a culture of innovation among our Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), as well as enabling the close collaboration between industry and the academe. Both of these are crucial as we endure the pandemic and we push to revitalize businesses, investments, livelihoods, and domestic demand,” Sec. Lopez added.  

The trade chief also stressed the need for government to continuously invest in research and development (R&D) and innovation to sustain economic growth. He also underscored the importance of closer collaboration with the private sector, increased access to credit for all Filipinos, provision of microfinancing opportunities and livelihood and business trainings for MSMEs. 

The GII 2020 noted that “over the past seven years, and taken together, China, the Philippines, India, and Vietnam are the GII economies in the top 50 with the most significant rank progress over time.”  

This was facilitated by their integration in global value chains and innovation networks. More specifically for the Philippines, from a rank of 100th in 2014 and reaching 50^th in 2020, the GII highlighted country’s continued performance in pushing above expectations in its level of development. This placed the country among the top 10 best-ranked lower middle-income economies in the GII, which includes Vietnam, India, and Indonesia. 

“The DTI has long-recognized that for the Philippines to be competitive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, our enterprises and industries need to have strong linkages in domestic and global value chains and participate in innovation and production networks. These are essential in our Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy (i3S), which we have been implementing since 2014 and guides our efforts in building Regional Inclusive Innovation Centers (RIICs) across the country consistent with our Inclusive Filipinnovation and Entrepreneurship Roadmap,” said Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba.  

“The RIICs bring together stakeholders from government, industry, and the academe to collaborate and commercialize innovations in order to generate better employment opportunities, more entrepreneurial activities, and sustainable economic prosperity in the country’s regions,” said Undersecretary Aldaba. 

The country’s rankings in the GII’s input and output sub-indices continues to improve year-on-year. From a rank of 76^th in 2019, the Philippine input sub-index rank rose to 70^th, and from a rank of 42^nd in 2019, the Philippine output sub-index rank moved up to 41^st.  

Furthermore, the country’s rankings significantly increased from last year’s in four of the GII’s seven pillars: market sophistication (110^th to 86^th), business sophistication (32^nd to 29^th), knowledge & technology outputs (31^st to 26^th), and creative outputs (63^rd to 57^th). 

The GII 2020 also indicated that the Philippines’s strengths include: trade, competition, and market scale (20^th); knowledge absorption (7^th); knowledge diffusion (8^th); utility models by origin (8^th); productivity growth (6^th); high-tech net exports (3^rd); ICT services exports (8^th); firms offering formal training (7^th); creative goods exports (10^th); e-participation (19^th); and high-tech imports (1^st). 

“We are confident that the Philippines can improve its innovation performance and move up the GII in the coming years, especially with the implementation of the Philippine Innovation Act and Innovative Startups Act. Filipinnovation will remain central to sustaining our competitiveness and national development through this pandemic and beyond,” remarked Sec. Lopez. 

The #GII2020 is available at: https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2020/. 

A quick view on the Philippine performance is available at: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2020/ph.pdf.♦

Date of Release: 4 September 2020