Bangladesh slips in innovation index; lags behind India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Bangladesh has slipped three notches to rank 105th among 132 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023, indicating a deterioration in its innovation capabilities. It lags behind India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The 16th edition of the index, which ranks world economies according to their innovation capabilities, was released on Wednesday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations.

Before moving up 14 notches to be in the 102nd position in the GII 2022, Bangladesh was stuck in the same 116th rank among 132 countries on the index from 2018 to 2021.

With a score of 67.6 out of 100, Switzerland, for the 13th year, ranked first in the GII 2023, followed by Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

With a score of 20.2, Bangladesh ranked 22nd among 37 lower-middle-income group economies and 7th among 10 economies in Central and Southern Asia.

In Central and Southern Asia, India, at 40th, is the best-ranked innovation economy in this region and also performs the best among the lower middle-income group.

In South Asia, the world's most populous country was followed by Pakistan at 88th, Sri Lanka at 90th, Bangladesh at 105th, and Nepal at 108th.

The Global Innovation Index is based on 80 indicators and grouped into two sub-indices: innovation inputs and innovation outputs.

The innovation input sub-index gauges elements of the economy that enable and facilitate innovative activities and is grouped into five pillars: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication.

The innovation output sub-index captures the actual result of innovative activities within the economy and is divided into two pillars: knowledge and technology outputs and creative outputs.

Innovation strengths and weaknesses in Bangladesh

According to the report, Bangladesh performed better in innovation outputs than in innovation inputs in 2023.

The country ranked 89th in innovation outputs, up from 90th last year. It slipped to 114th in innovation inputs from 112th.

Among the seven pillars, the strongest areas for Bangladesh are creative outputs at 82nd, knowledge and technology outputs at 89th, infrastructure at 93rd, and market sophistication at 100th.

The weakest areas are business sophistication at 126th, human capital and research at 125th, and institutions at 108th.

However, Bangladesh performs below the lower-middle-income group average in knowledge and technology outputs, business sophistication, market sophistication, human capital and research, and institutions, as highlighted in the report.

The report also highlighted Bangladesh's strengths and weaknesses under the sub-pillars of the seven pillars.

Bangladesh ranked 130th in the ICT services imports sub-pillar, environmental performance at 129th, pupil-teacher ratio at the secondary level at 123rd, expenditure on education at 122nd, and graduates in science and engineering at 108th, which are major weaknesses.

In the area of knowledge impact on labour productivity growth, Bangladesh ranked seventh, while in the area of GDP per unit of energy use, Bangladesh ranked 14th.

In terms of loans from microfinance institutions in the field of credit, the country's position was also 14th. These are Bangladesh's main innovation strengths.