Vietnam jumped two places to 46th place in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2023, according to the WIPO report released on September 27.

With this latest ranking, Vietnam is placed fourth in Southeast Asia behind Singapore (5th), Malaysia (36th), and Thailand (43rd).

Switzerland, Sweden, the US, and the UK are the world’s most innovative economies in 2023.

The report shows that Vietnam is one among seven middle-income economies to have climbed in the GII rankings at the fastest pace over the past decade.

It is also rated as one of three innovation overperformers for 13 years in a row.

The GII 2023 uses 80 indicators to track global innovation trends in 130-plus economies, guiding policymakers and business leaders in stimulating human ingenuity. This year, the report’s findings were unveiled against a background of slow economic recovery from Covid-19, high interest rates, and geopolitical conflict.

The 2023 edition identifies an increasingly uncertain outlook for the venture capital (VC) that helps transform human ingenuity into new products and services, with the global value of VC funding experiencing a significant plunge last year.

“With the GII, policymakers across the world continue to have a rich and trusted source of data and information to craft pro-innovation policies to unleash the innovative potential of their people,” WIPO Director General Daren Tang was quoted as saying in a press release issued on September 27.