The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) will work with relevant agencies to conduct innovation evaluation and help localities identify right directions to follow to help raise Vietnam’s position in the Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings, an official has said.

 The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) will work with relevant agencies to conduct innovation evaluation and help localities identify right directions to follow to help raise Vietnam’s position in the Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings, an official has said.

The MoST in coordination with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other international organisations in Geneva held a hybrid workshop on October 10 to provide information about the GII 2023.

Speaking in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said that in the GII 2023 recently released by WIPO, Vietnam ranks 46th among the 132 listed countries and economies, up two places from 2022. It is also assessed as one of the seven middle-income countries showing the most progress in innovation over the last decade.

The country has jumped two places to the 57th from last year in terms of the innovation input sub-index, and one place to the 40th in the innovation output sub-index.

Among ASEAN countries, Vietnam follows Singapore (5th), Malaysia (36th), and Thailand (43rd).

Duy held that if some factors such as the ICT services exports, copyright payments, fees and licences had been updated, Vietnam’s position in the GII 2023 would have been higher.

Coordination from input to output among all parties is needed to promote innovation, the official said, expressing his hope that with support from WIPO experts, the MoST and related units can carry out innovation evaluation, especially for localities, so that they can identify right directions to follow to help raise Vietnam’s position in the GII rankings.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, the WTO and other international organisations in Geneva, said via videoconference that Vietnam’s position in the GII 2023 rankings is encouraging but also poses a big challenge for the coming time, especially amid numerous political and economic uncertainties in the world, along with changes in investment and trade strategies of many countries.

Therefore, Vietnam needs to take measures to tap into its enormous potential and further boost technology transfer and innovation to develop the brands of high-quality Vietnamese goods and services in foreign markets. This requires efforts by all-level authorities and sectors, particularly localities, scientists, the private sector and business associations, to step up innovation and science - technology application, she continued.

The ambassador pledged that the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the UN will assist the country to cooperate with WIPO and related organisations in innovation and technology transfer to develop products and services./.