Jordan fifth among Arab states on Global Innovation Index

AMMAN — Jordan’s ranking dropped by three places to 64th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2014, which outlines the world’s most innovative economies, covering 143 countries.

The index, issued by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, showed that Jordan ranked fifth among Arab states and was preceded by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.

Jordan witnessed several drops in a variety of indicators that affected its ranking in this year’s index, issued over the weekend.

The Kingdom was ranked 96th globally in terms of political stability in 2014 compared to 91st in 2013 report. 

It ranked 71st globally in government effectiveness, compared to 65th in 2013, and dropped in terms of starting a business from 31st place in 2013 to 73rd in 2014.

Jordan also witnessed a decline from 31st place in ease of paying taxes in 2013 to 36th in 2014.

In terms of high-tech exports, Jordan dropped to 76th place globally in 2014, compared to 64th in 2013, and it dropped to 45th place in creative goods exports in 2014 compared to 34th in the 2013 index.

According to the index, the Kingdom also dropped dropped one place from 2013 to 69th place in terms of ICT access. It also dropped to 84th place in terms of ICT use compared to 68th the year before.

The study classifies Jordan among the group of innovation learners that includes the Republic of Moldova, China, Mongolia, Vietnam, India, Armenia, Senegal, Malaysia, Thailand, Ukraine and Georgia.

Countries in this grouping demonstrated “rising levels of innovation results” because of improvements made to institutional frameworks, a skilled labour force with expanded tertiary education, better innovation infrastructures, a deeper integration with global credit investment and trade markets, and a sophisticated business community.

The GII 2014 is calculated as the average of two sub-indexes.

The Innovation Input Sub-Index gauges elements of the national economy that embody innovative capabilities grouped under five pillars: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market, and business sophistication.

The Innovation Output Sub-Index captures actual evidence of innovation results, divided into two pillars: knowledge and technology outputs, and creative outputs. 

Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Sweden topped this year’s index, while Yemen, Togo and Sudan were the bottom three.