Romania has achieved a score of 57.06 points following the calculations for the global 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index and ranked 38th out of 50 positions in the top innovative economies.
Our country missed the 2016 ranking and in 2015 ranked 37th.
The Bloomberg ranking scores economies based on factors including research and development spending and the concentration of high-tech public companies.
The ranking used the evaluation of the innovation capacity of an economy on seven categories:
- Research and development spending (share of GDP);
- Manufacturing added value;
- Productivity (GDP and GNP per employee);
- High-tech (number of high-tech public companies and share of total number of public companies);
- Efficiency of tertiary education;
- Researcher concentration (professionals engaged in R&D per million inhabitants);
- Patent activity
Romania’s best position (14th) is in the 2nd category- manufacturing value added (due to its position in the automotive industry).
Although, Romania ranks 49th in the first category – share of research and development spending in GDP. The second weakest position (46th) is in the 6th category – the number of researchers per million inhabitants, and in the 7th category (patents) it ranks 35th, in the 5th category: 31st and the 4th category (high-tech): 25th.
South Korea is the world champion of innovation in the economy, followed by Sweden and Germany. Romania’s economy is surpassed by countries such as Turkey (37th), Greece (30th), the Czech Republic (28th), Hungary (27th) and Poland (22nd).
South Korea achieved a total score of 89 points and is the world leader in terms of research spending share of GDP, manufacturing added value, and patents. Sweden ranks second following the improved manufacturing high added value.
Behind Germany, Switzerland is ranked on the 4th position, while Finland has moved two positions up to the fifth, thanks to the high-tech companies’ growth.
Sweden, a country dominated by multinationals, has advanced mostly due to the government funding especially for the small firms, according to Professor Asa Lindholm Dahlstrand from the Lund University. The focus on research and development has helped Sweden to face the difficult economic times from recent years.
„There is a heavy emphasis on research and development in Sweden. We saw what happened in many other countries that did not the same thing,” says Dahlstrand.
The country that has lost the most in this year’s edition of Bloomberg Innovation Index is Russia, which fell 14 positions to 26th. The years of sanctions and low oil prices have put pressure on Russia’s scores for productivity and manufacturing high added value.
Japan fell from the fourth to the seventh position, because it lost the leading position in patents.
The U.S. lost one position to the ninth, while Israel has climbed one position to the 10th.
China is the highest-ranked emerging economy, 21st position, due to the improvement of its university system.
