Pandemic speeds innovation shift to Asia: UN

Pandemic speeds innovation shift to Asia: UN

GENEVA: The COVID-19 pandemic sped up the shift of innovation from Europe and North America towards Asia, UN world rankings showed Monday. The Global Innovation Index 2021, from the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization, showed surging performances by South Korea and China.

“The pandemic has accelerated the long-term geographical shift of innovation activities toward Asia, even if Northern America and Europe continue to host some of the world’s leading innovators,” said WIPO. While the top four in the global rankings remained the same as last year — with Switzerland leading for the 11th year running followed by Sweden, the United States and Britain — South Korea leapt five places to fifth.

The index found “substantial increases in brand values in Korea, in trademarks being filed, but also in cultural and creative services exports,” index co-editor Sacha Wunsch-Vincent told reporters, citing the K-Pop phenomenon. The Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, Denmark and Germany round out the top 10.

Meanwhile China continued its progress towards the top 10 and is still the only middle-income economy in the top 30, up two places to number 12. Wunsch-Vincent said the country’s innovation players were individually strong and China was now trying to connect them better “so that public