By Sheena Forde-Craigg
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (GIS) – Barbados ranks 77th among the 133 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024. This country was last ranked in the GII in 2016.
The Global Innovation Index ranks world economies according to their innovation capabilities, and during its 17th edition at the end of September, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a Geneva-based international agency focused on global intellectual property issues, unveiled its 2024 GII.
Topping the leaderboard were Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, which were ranked as the world’s most innovative economies. The GII 2024 found that China, Turkey, India, Vietnam, and the Philippines are the fastest ten-year climbers.
Barbados’ ranking has been attributed to the collaborative work between WIPO, the corporate affairs and intellectual property office, and Export Barbados, supported by the permanent mission of Barbados to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other International Organisations in Geneva.
Barbados’ ranking of 77th is considered impressive, given the gathering of the necessary statistical data, which began a few months ago. It was noted that Barbados performed above regional and Latin American countries in the indicators of institutions, human capital and research, business sophistication, knowledge, and technology outputs.
During that event, leaders in global innovation were also highlighted and there was a dedicated discussion on unlocking the promise of social entrepreneurship.
There were statements by heads of state and governments, including the president of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; prime minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Pham Minh Chinh; and prime minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley.
Prime Minister Mottley in her video message said:
“For the first time in eight years Barbados is included in this important index, which serves to identify the progress countries have made in creating a culture of innovation, highlights the levers that must be pulled to further transform, and allows us to measure what matters….
“As a small island developing state on the frontlines of the climate crisis, and incredibly sensitive to the impact of geopolitical and economic shocks, we in Barbados and the wider global majority are by our very nature innovative.”
Mottley indicated that the government is committed to investing in its people.
“In Barbados, we are committed to building the kind of education, business and investment ecosystem that will make the small size of our land space almost irrelevant. As we invest in our people, our potential for transformative growth becomes endless, [and] one of the most important areas of investment for Barbados has indeed, always been education.”
WIPO director-general, Daren Tang, praised Barbados’ commitment to innovation and highlighted that Barbados’ re-entry to the GII “will give many other developing countries the continued encouragement” to see that innovation, tech, and creativity are critical for growth and development.
Barbados also performed well in the areas of education and business development. In terms of specific rankings, it ranked highly in business sophistication (49th), institutions (50th) and knowledge and technology outputs (57th). Improvements were seen in broadband coverage and international patent filings.
Areas for continued investment were seen as innovation infrastructure, market sophistication and creative outputs with a specific need to improve the level of innovation outputs against the level of investment in innovation inputs.
Barbados’ permanent representative to the United Nations, WTO and other International Organizations in Geneva, Matthew Wilson, noted that to ensure the GII continues to be useful, there is a need to invest in more and better data collection and analysis to populate the missing indicators. This would allow for a better and more accurate picture of this country’s innovation story.
“Barbados understands that a crucial component of innovation is investing in intellectual property, and it looks forward to partnering with WIPO to support Barbados’ innovation journey,” ambassador Wilson said.
