The country has a strong position in terms of ease of doing business and labor productivity.

Uzbekistan took the 86th place in the new ranking of the Global Innovation Index, Spot reports referring to the press service of the Innovative Development Ministry.

The rating for 2021 was released on September 20 under the heading “Development of innovations in the context of the COVID-19 crisis”. The compilers assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related crisis on global innovation growth rates. There are 132 countries in the ranking at the moment.

Uzbekistan became 86th, moving up seven lines in a year. The previous rating, including Uzbekistan, was published in 2015 – then the country took the 122nd place.

The index assesses the innovative development of countries with different economic levels based on 81 indicators, divided into two sub-indices.

•  Sub-index of available resources and conditions for the implementation of innovations – this includes the level of development of institutions, human capital, research, infrastructure, the state of the domestic market and business.

•  Sub-index of practical results of innovation – it includes the development of technology and the knowledge economy, as well as the results of creative activity.

In the sub-index of conditions for innovation, Uzbekistan improved by 7 positions and reached the 75th line. On the sub-index of innovation results, the country’s position rose by 18 lines, to the 100th place.

In particular, Uzbekistan occupies a strong position in the following indicators:

•  number of graduates in science and engineering (7th place);

•  ease of doing business (8th place);

•  labor productivity (8th place);

•  gross capital formation (7th place);

•  government spending on education (28th place).

It is noted that Uzbekistan has become the 10th in the group of countries with a lower middle income level, taking a leading position among them in the development of human capital, the level of infrastructure and the development of the domestic market.

Switzerland took the 1st place in the ranking. China ranked 12th. Among the CIS countries, Russia ranked 45th, Kazakhstan – 79th, Azerbaijan – 80th, Kyrgyzstan – 98th and Tajikistan – 103rd. Turkmenistan was not included in the rating.

The Ministry of Innovations reports that one of the goals of the Strategy for Innovative Development of Uzbekistan is the country’s entry into the first 50 in the Global Innovation Index by 2030.

For information, the Global Innovation Index is a joint study from Cornell University (USA), a business school Insead (France) and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Its purpose is to assess the level of innovative development in the countries of the world.

By Sher Karimov