Pakistan's rank in the Global Innovation Index reveals dreary conditions

LAHORE: The 2018 Global Innovation Index was recently released analysing countries on the basis of their performance in innovation output, energy efficiency, creativity, human resource, and a country's ability to conduct business through its institutions.

Top performers in the region of South and Central Asia included India at the top, with Kazakhstan and Iran following behind.

The Global Innovation Index ranks countries based on the quality of their institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, and creative outputs.

The report placed Pakistan in the lower-middle income group, with the population at 197 million, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at $1056.4, and GDP per capita at $5358.3.

Pakistan's ranking in the category of institutions is in the grey, with its political environment, regulatory environment, and the business environment ranked low which is not surprising since the country's political situation has never been stable in its 71-year history amid rampant corruption that has diminished the sanctity of its institutions' overtime. Ease of doing business, ease of resolving insolvency and the business environment fared better with rankings below the 100 mark, which puts Pakistan ahead of most countries with a low-income status and poor economic influence and capability.

Pakistan's infrastructure ranked at 111 out of the 126 countries ranked in the report. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access, ICT use, the government's online services were ranked at 108, 114, and 101 - clearly showing how far behind Pakistan is when it comes to the availability and usage of the internet. General infrastructure, which includes electricity output, logistical performance, and gross capital performance again portrays a dreary picture of the country.

Market sophistication which includes credit, ease of getting credit, domestic credit to the private sector, and microfinance gross loans - was marked 107, with microfinance loans being ranked at 39.

Pakistan ranked 100 in business sophistication with knowledge-intensive employment being ranked at a worrisome 103 and females employed with advaned degrees at 94.

Pakistan does fare better, however, at innovation linkages ranked at 85. University to industry research collaboration, joint-ventures strategic alliance deals, and state of cluster development all ranked near the 50 mark.

In Online Creativity, Pakistan ranked at 71, with mobile app creation getting the rank of 48 - showing the surge in tech organisations and IT software exports.

Overall, the country's rankings show a lack of effort at the policy level and an inability to develop robust institutions, a healthy working environment, and inefficiency when it comes to innovation.