These 7 countries are rising fast on a global innovations league table

Innovation drives growth, and some countries are experiencing this faster than others.

The Global Innovation Index from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ranks 132 economies annually on their innovation performance, including the fastest risers.

Botswana, Ghana, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan are the seven countries that climbed the most in the 2022 innovation rankings.

Botswana in Southern Africa was the biggest riser in the Global Innovation Index 2022, jumping to 86th position, up from 106th position in 2021 and 89th in 2020.

Key drivers for this included increased spending on education and on research and development.

Ghana in West Africa climbed to 95th place in the Global Innovation Index, up 17 places from 2021 and 13 places from 2020.

WIPO found Ghana performed above the average for lower-middle-income economies in three areas – infrastructure, business sophistication and creative outputs – a category that includes intangible assets such as trademarks and creative goods and services.

Qatar ranks 52nd of 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2022. This is up from 68th place in 2021 and 70th in 2020.

Qatar’s innovation strengths include policies for doing business.

Saudi Arabia has risen to 51st place in the Global Innovation Index, up from 66th place in both 2021 and 2020.

Market sophistication – a category that includes business finance and investment – is the country's best performing area, WIPO says. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, which includes diversifying the economy, is strongly focused on innovation and technology and this has helped to boost its rankings in the Global Innovation Index, notes data site, Statista.

Bangladesh has risen to 102nd in the Global Innovation Index, up from 116th in 2021 and 2020.

WIPO finds this improvement by Bangladesh is most notable in creative outputs, intangible assets and online creativity – a category that includes high-ranking web domains and mobile app creation. The country also performs “especially well” in corporate intangible asset intensity, which measures how companies are generating and building value through assets like industrial designs and global brand value, as well as trademarks.

Indonesia has leapt up the rankings to achieve its best position since 2012.

The country leads globally in entrepreneurship policies and culture and has also made “notable improvements” in innovation links – for example between universities and industry – and in intangible assets.

Pakistan, along with Indonesia and Uzbekistan, are among 26 countries in the Global Innovation Index 2022 that outperform on innovation relative to their development.

The country is 87th in the rankings, up from 99th in 2021 and 107th in 2020.

Key innovation strengths for Pakistan include the scale of its domestic market and collaborations between universities and business.