Pakistan ranked 16th worst economy in Global Innovation Index 2019 rankings

The annual Global Innovation Index has recently released its report for the year, 2019, ranking Pakistan in the bottom line of worst 16 countries out of a total of 121 countries.

Evaluating a total of 79 indicators, the Global Innovation Index covered 121 economies on “Effective Innovation Policies for Development” for the year 2019. It analyzed the effectiveness of government efforts and their impact on the economy’s degree of development.

Pakistan is currently ranked at the 105th position with a total score of 25.37 points on the 100 point scale. Although Pakistan’s situation has improved considerably, the country is still stuck at the 105th position, barely a few ranks up from 2018’s 109th rank out of 126 countries. Whereas, the total innovation score has decreased from 24.00 to 23.07.

It is pertinent to note that the Global Innovation Index (GII) is an annual ranking of countries, parameterized by their capacity and success for innovation. It is published by Cornell University’s Institute Européend ‘Administration des Affaires (INEASD) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which is one of the 15 specialized agencies of United Nation.

It is worth mentioning here that the Index’s detailed report which included creative outputs in the country’s ICT sector ranked Pakistan at 104 with a score of 17.6. This means that Pakistan still needs to work hard to strengthen ICTs and business model creation. Meanwhile, ICT services export of Pakistan has recorded a slight increase.

Furthermore, the rankings elaborated that focusing on translating investments into results is, key. How would a country translate investment in education, qualified researchers and research and development into high quality and innovative outputs? Most economies maintain a linear relationship between input and output; however, some economies are prone to under-delivering on their investments.

Meanwhile, our neighboring country India has shown a consistent commitment in sustaining innovation input index by scoring 36.6 points to be ranked as 52nd economy. Especially, when it comes to ICT services exports, foreign direct investment, and net outflows, the report illustrates that India is way better than Pakistan.

Such a low ranking of Pakistan is mainly because of political uncertainty, consistent corruption, which has created a discouraging environment for business and has handicapped our institutions. We could only hope that in the coming years, Pakistan will continue to improve its ranking through economic perseverance and elimination of corruption and terrorism.