Chile, the most innovative economy in the region, according to the Global Innovation Index

The World Intellectual Property Organization (Ompi) has released its latest Global Innovation Index, with Chile set to become the most innovative economy in Latin America in 2021.

To develop this investment, which evaluates 132 countries, UN member Ompi takes into account factors such as institutions, human capital, research, infrastructure, business development and markets, as well as creative information production.

As a result, Chile ranks first among the countries in the region at 53rd globally. It is followed by Mexico in 55th place, Costa Rica in 56th place and Brazil in 57th place.

So Uruguay is the fifth largest economy creative Latin America, 65th in the world. Colombia ranked 67th out of 132.

On top of investment, Switzerland will be among the world’s ten most innovative economies in 2021, followed by Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Korea. The Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, Denmark and Germany follow in that order.

In this post, the index provides specific tracking of the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in innovation, research and development.

According to the Ompi study, governments and companies around the world have increased their investments in innovation despite the human and financial costs of last year’s pandemic.

Investment in innovation reached an all-time high before the pandemic, with R&D growth reaching 8.5% in 2019.

In 2020, this data continued to grow: global publication of scientific articles increased by 7.6%; International patent applications through Omp reached an all-time high last year (3.5% increase due to medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology); In addition, venture capital contracts grew by 5.8%, exceeding the average growth rate of the past 10 years; And so the other props increased.

According to GII 2021, the innovative sectors of the global economy will remain strong despite the severe shocks. To beat the pandemic and ensure better building, we must continue to support the translation of great ideas into innovative products. “

However, this is not the case in Colombia. The country has been stuck at the top of the world average for the past three years and ranked 67th and 68th.

Moreover, in the 2021 ranking, Colombia is ranked 17th out of 34 major economies in the upper middle income group.

In this context, Manolo Castro, partner and founder of Mindhack, a Colombian startup focused on promoting innovation in companies, emphasized: “We feel innovative, but we are really creative. We are used to this self-evident situation and we do things quickly. We are creative, but we are not.”

Regarding the GII, Castro added: “The most interesting thing about this investment is that one of the most important openings goes back to talent. You might think it’s related to infrastructure and other dynamics, but when you look at the details, they are presented as talent and that’s something that shows up in different projects, in companies that are looking for talent. “

In the introduction to the report, Ecopetrol Director Philip Payon spoke about the company’s responsibility to foster innovation: “At Ecopetrol, we know we can’t do everything on our own, which is why we’ve strengthened our work with public and private entities such as Microsoft, IHS Markit, Plug and Play and iNNpulsa Colombia, the Israel Innovation Authority, and the Colombian Ministry of Science.”