The country, at number 47, is now only behind Singapore and Malaysia in Southeast Asia. Vietnam has been named the 47th most innovative economy in the world, its best performance to date, according to this year’s Global Innovation Index report.
The country jumped 12 spots compared to last year, thanks to its efforts to improve business environment as well as competitiveness.
Vietnam also ranked first among lower-middle income economies. Among Southeast Asian countries, it overtook Thailand to secure the third place, only behind Singapore and Malaysia.
Knowledge and Technology Outputs, one of the main pillars of the index, was found to be Vietnam’s strong point.
The country also performed well in Market Sophistication and in Creative Outputs. However, Vietnam’s performance was mediocre in the other pillars that measure institutional framework, human capital, infrastructures and business sophistication.
“New Asian Tigers — such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam — are emerging too, and they increasingly join not only Asian high-tech value chains but also other activities such as ICT offshoring. These and other countries in Asia are also active in improving their innovation performance,” the report said.
The report, co-published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University and the business school INSEAD, surveys the innovation performance of 127 economies around the world.
Vietnam has been part of the index since its debut in 2007. The country has been climbing up since 2013, after several years of hovering just above the 70th place.
