Our country scores significantly lower than its neighboring countries. The Netherlands ranks seventh, Germany ranks eighth, and France ranks eleventh. Luxembourg has to settle for 21st place.
European countries are still strongly represented in the top twenty, but are losing momentum, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization. The report says that the countries witnessing positive developments in terms of innovative power are India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Brazil. The worst-scoring countries are Burundi, Iraq and Guinea.
WIPO fears that the decline in investment capital – by 40 percent last year – will have consequences for the innovative capacity of many countries. Deployed risk capital also fell in the first half, due to higher interest rates, according to the UN agency. It seems that “the days of cheap money are over.”
The Innovation Index ranking takes into account 80 criteria, such as regulations, human capital, infrastructure, technology and patents.
Belgium scores well in education, R&D spending, number of researchers and knowledge workers, and software spending. Weaknesses include the number of technical graduates in higher education, ICT infrastructure, and labor productivity growth.
