Vietnam's 42nd place for the second year in a row among 131 global economies in the 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII) ranking is highly valued by international experts.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other international organizations in Geneva (Switzerland) made the statement at an online workshop on GII 2020 on September 8.

The workshop was jointly organized by Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which released the GII ranking on September 2.

Accordingly, Vietnam is among the 10 best-ranked economies in terms of income group, and leads the group of lower-middle income economies, made up of 29 countries. Furthermore, the country has been also listed among the top 50 economies that have witnessed remarkable progress in the GII rankings in recent years.

Ambassador Mai cited WIPO experts that Vietnam is moving towards the group of 40 leading countries in this index which contains a majority of high-income countries.

The Vietnamese diplomat added that this is a proud but challenging result in the context where the pandemic is hindering innovation activities.

Mr. Sacha Wunsch - Vincent, a senior expert of the WIPO, speaks highly Vietnam's GII ranking

Mr. Sacha Wunsch - Vincent, a senior expert of the WIPO who led the drafting team of GII 2020 report, said Vietnamese businesses have made remarkable progress, making an important contribution to the upgrade of Vietnam's GII.

For his part, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy stressed that Vietnam's improvement in the GII ranking is the result of Vietnamese governmental system's efforts.

"In the difficult context of 2020, when the economies of all countries in the world have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam has emerged as an exemplary in the fight against the pandemic, accumulating research and innovation results in many years and offering sci-tech solutions," Mr. Duy said.

He suggested that WIPO experts should cooperate with Vietnam to comprehensively re-evaluate the innovation index in the past ten years and assess innovation policies to raise innovative proposals.

The Global Innovation Index is a set of tools to evaluate the innovation capacity of nations in the world, implemented by WIPO in collaboration with INSEAD Institute, France and Cornell University (the US).