Dubai: The UAE has been ranked 47th on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015, according to a report released on Sunday, co-published by Cornell University, Insead and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The country’s ranking dropped from 36th last year.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, topped the charts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries index at 43rd position (from 38th in 2014), followed by the UAE, Qatar (50), Bahrain (59), Oman (69) and Kuwait (77). Qatar and Kuwait dropped from 47 and 69 a year ago respectively, while Bahrain and Oman rose from 62 and 75, respectively.

“Although the scaling by GDP [gross domestic product] of a few indicators — required for comparability across countries — penalises the relatively wealthy, resource-rich countries of the GCC, they often exhibit relative shortcomings in important areas in which this effect does not prevail, such as institutions, market sophistication and Business sophistication,” the authors said in the report.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Yemen and Algeria, show below-par performances when compared to their income levels, according to the report.

However, the authors expect the GCC countries to do better in the coming years, as many of them have been diversifying towards innovation-rich sectors.

“With the roll-out of the National Innovation Strategy in late 2014, the UAE government has provided a framework for innovation to flourish even further. This strategy underpins the government’s ambitions for Vision 2021, and is a concrete step to further long-term, creative and sustainable gains rather than short-term wins,” said Osman Sultan, chief executive of telecom operator Du, in the report.

Du collaborates with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), A.T. Kearney and IMP³rove — European Innovation Management Academy as Knowledge Partners in 2015, contributing analytical chapters or case studies to the GII report.

The GII report surveys 141 economies around the world using 79 indicators.

Global index

Globally, Switzerland topped the charts, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden (all three having maintained their positions from last year), the Netherlands, the United Sates, Finland, Singapore, Ireland, Luxembourg and Denmark.

The US and the UK are ahead in terms of innovation quality, as measured by university performance, the reach of scholarly articles and the international dimension of patent applications, followed by Japan, Germany and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the top-scoring middle-income economies on innovation quality are China, Brazil and India.

The eight low-income countries outperforming others in their income group include Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, and Uganda.

According to the report, the technology gap between developing and developed countries is narrowing. One explanation for this is that more and more developing countries outperform in innovation inputs and outputs relative to their level of development.

It also suggests that national innovation policy programmes and the corresponding institutional arrangements have flourished in low- and middle- income countries.