TEHRAN - According to the 2023 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report, the Islamic Republic of Iran ranks second among the countries of the Central and Southern Asian region, unchanged compared with the last year.

Published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the report ranks Iran 19th, 43rd, and 55th in "Market sophistication", "Creative outputs", and "Knowledge and technology outputs", respectively.

The GII 2023 uses 80 indicators to track global innovation trends in 130-plus economies, guiding policymakers and business leaders in stimulating human ingenuity. This year, the report’s findings are unveiled against a background of slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, high interest rates, and geopolitical conflict.

The 2023 edition identifies an increasingly uncertain outlook for venture capital (VC) that helps transform human ingenuity into new products and services, with the global value of VC funding marking a significant plunge last year.

According to the GII 2023 rankings, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore are the top countries. China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Iran are the middle-income economies making the most headway in innovation over the last decade.

In the 16th report of the GII, which was announced at an event hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it is stated that Iran ranks 62nd among 132 countries in the world and 6th among 37 countries in lower middle-income countries.

In knowledge and technology outputs, creative outputs, market sophistication, human capital, and research, and infrastructure, Iran’s performance is above the average of the lower middle-income group.

On the other hand, Iran performs above the regional average (Central and South Asia) in all these indexes, except for the infrastructure.

Under the 6.2.2 index, which was presented in the 2022 report under the title of "New Businesses" and in the new report under the title of "Unicorn Valuation", Iran's rank has risen from 90 in 2022 to 48 in 2023.

Iran had no data for 10 out of 80 indicators evaluated and 18 indicators were not up-to-date, which requires inter-institutional coordination with the evaluator institution to include a more accurate and realistic assessment of the country's state of innovation development.

The top three universities of the country are Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University, and Tehran University respectively.

Also, the only company that has been evaluated by BRAND FINANCE company is Pasargad Bank, with a value of 758.6 million dollars.

Iran’s main innovation strengths are Trademark by origin (rank 1) graduates in science and engineering (rank 3),  Market capitalization ( rank 5), gross capital formation (rank 9), industrial designs (11), and intangible assets (13).

GII report 2022

According to the Global Innovation Index 2022 report, Iran was the second most innovative country in the Central and Southern Asian region and the third among low-middle income countries.

Iran ranked 53rd in the world with 7 steps up compared to 2021.

According to the 2022 GII, Switzerland, the United States of America, Sweden, England, and the Netherlands were the most innovative economies in the world, and China was on the verge of entering the world’s 10 most innovative countries.

The top global companies increased their R&D spending by almost 10 percent to more than $900 billion in 2021, more than in 2019 (before the pandemic).

The drivers of this increase were mainly four industries of "Information and Communication Technology Hardware and Electrical Equipment", "Information and Communication Technology Software and Services", "Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology" and "Construction and Industrial Metals".

In the annual ranking of innovation capacity and output of world economies, key changes were observed in the top 15 countries. Vietnam (48th), Iran (53rd), and the Philippines (59th) are middle-income economies with the fastest growth in innovation performance to date.

With 7 ranks of promotion compared to 2021, Iran ranked 53rd in the world, second in the Central and South Asian region, and third in low-middle income countries, and for the second consecutive year, the innovation development rate was higher than expected.

Iran was leading in indicators such as trademark registration (rank 1) and science and engineering graduates (rank 2). In terms of innovation outputs, Iran has a performance similar to high-income European economies such as Latvia (rank 41) and Croatia (rank 42).

MT/MG