Despite moving up three notches in the Global Innovation Index to 56th from 59th last year, the Philippines like other economies are challenged by high inflation, monetary tightening policies and geopolitical tensions when it comes to innovation.
Rowel Barba, director-general of the IPOPHL, in a statement said he concurs with this observation raised by Daren Tang, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which released the GII scores on Wednesday.
Citing the report, Barba said after a boom in 2021, innovation finance through venture capital investments declined by 40 percent last year while international patent applications recorded the slowest rate of increase since 2009, although still achieving a record 280,000 applications.
The Philippines remains in the upper 50 percentile of the 132 countries covered by the study.
The Philippines aims to be in the upper third of the rankings by 2028.
Barba said the Philippines, based on the report, continued performing above expectations for its level of development based on its GDP per capita as it effectively turned costly innovation investments into more and higher-quality outputs.
Barba said the Philippines improved for the first since 2020 on innovation inputs, jumping by seven spots to 69th from 76th in 2022 and by 13 spots from 82nd in 2018 — the year before the Philippine Innovation Law and Philippine Startup Act came tool effect
The country’s ranking in the Credit sub-pillar – which moved out from being a weakness last year – soared by 57 spots this year (from 115th to 58th), reflecting improved accessibility and availability of financing which had been the primary obstacles to startups. Investments grew by four rungs (from 55th to 51st) as more venture capitalists invested in the country, raising venture capital deals received both in number and in value.
Innovation linkages also rose by 12 spots (from 91st to 79th) while University-Industry R&D Collaboration indicator grew by seven spots (from 64th to 57th).
The Philippines also improved in innovation outputs to 52nd from 51st last year and 40th in 2021, indicating ability to produce more knowledge assets that positively impact markets and society.
The report said the Philippines is one of seven countries making the most headway in innovation over the last decade. It is among the middle-income economies within the top 65 countries in GII.
The Philippines is in the top 60 innovative nations of the decade 2013-2023. It is in the Top 90 of standout economies in a four-year innovation surge from 2019 to 2023, according to the GII.
While it ranks 56th among the 132 economies, the Philippines ranks 4th among the 37 lower middle-income group economies and 11th among the 16 economies in Asia and the Pacific.
“Our good performance in innovation outputs compared to innovation inputs is reflective of our country’s ability to translate our innovation investments,” said Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr.
The Philippines ranks highest in business sophistication (38th), knowledge and technology outputs (46th) and market sophistication (55th).
It ranks lowest in human capital and research (88th), infrastructure (86th) and institutions (79th). – Paul Icamina
