Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Sept. 19 (Daily Mirror) – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 with Sri Lanka positioned at the 93rd spot.  

Last year, Sri Lanka ranked the 89th spot in the index.

Published annually since 2007, the ranking uses 80 indicators – from research and development (R&D) spending, venture capital deals, to high-tech exports and intellectual property filings – to evaluate how innovative 139 world economies are.

Switzerland remains the world’s innovation leader in 2025. China enters the top 10 for the first time, while middle-income economies – India, Türkiye, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Morocco, Albania and Iran – are the fastest climbers since 2013.

Switzerland tops the Global Innovation Index (GII) for a 15th consecutive year (Figure 1). It remains the global leader in the Creative outputs pillar and secures a top five position across all other pillars, except for Human capital and research (6th).

Sweden and the United States of America retain their 2nd and 3rd positions for the third year in a row.

The Republic of Korea climbs to 4th place in 2025 – its highest position to date.  Singapore remains within the top 5, despite slipping down one rank to 5th in 2025.

China enters the GII top 10 for the first time, leading globally in Knowledge and technology outputs. As the only middle-income economy within the top 30, China continues to lead its income group and ranks 3rd in its region, behind Singapore and the Republic of Korea. China is set to become the top R&D spender in 2024, according to WIPO estimates. 

WIPO Director General Daren Tang said that countries that view innovation as a fundamental engine of resilience, growth and competitiveness” are observed to perform better in the ranking.

This year’s GII reveals both encouraging progress as well as challenges that still need to be addressed for countries to fully harness their innovation potential. It is a reminder that innovation ecosystems require support and nurturing through thoughtful policies, meaningful investments and cross-sector collaboration,” Tang said. 

However, the findings indicate R&D spending growth slowed to 2.9% in 2024, down from 4.4% the previous year and marking its weakest pace since the 2010 financial crisis. WIPO projects a further decline to 2.3% in 2025.

Corporate R&D spending reached a record USD 1.3 trillion in 2024. However, growth in nominal terms slowed to 3.2%, or 1% in real terms, far below the 8% average for the past decade,” reads the report.