Sri Lanka has dropped 12 places to be ranked 101st in the latest Global Innovation Index 2020 from last year’s 89th rank with a score of 23.78 on a 0-100 scale, 100 being the most innovative.
Published annually since 2007, the GII is said to be a leading benchmarking tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world. The core of the GII report consists of a ranking of world economies’ innovation capabilities and results.
Recognising the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth and prosperity, and the need for a broad vision of innovation applicable to developed and emerging economies, the GII includes indicators that go beyond the traditional measures of innovation, such as the level of research and development.
Sri Lanka along with 10 other countries performing at expectations before is now performing below expectations for their level of development. In 2019, these eleven economies were already at the border of performing below expectations and swap out of the performing-at-expectations group, the report said.
Sri Lanka performed poorly in sub-indices of Institutions (119th) Human Capital and Research (119th) while showing strength in Infrastructure (78th), Business Sophistication (70th) and Knowledge and Technology Outputs (68th). The country ranked 118th in Market Sophistication sub index, and 100th in Creative Outputs.
