South Korea Reclaims Top Spot in Bloomberg Innovation Index

by Park Pyunghee

Published 03 Feb.2021 10:23(KST)

South Korea Reclaims Top Spot in Bloomberg Innovation Index

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] South Korea has reclaimed the top spot in the Bloomberg Innovation Index.

Bloomberg News reported on the 2nd (local time) that South Korea is leading global innovation and ranked first in the 2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index.

Bloomberg has been publishing the innovation index since 2013. South Korea has ranked first every year except in 2013 and last year. In 2013, the United States ranked first, and last year, Germany took the top spot.

Germany, which was first last year, dropped to fourth place this year, while South Korea, Singapore, and Switzerland, which were ranked second to fourth last year, each moved up one spot.

The Bloomberg Innovation Index evaluates dozens of detailed items across seven categories including research and development (R&D), manufacturing value-added, productivity, and patents to determine the rankings.

Bloomberg explained that although most of the statistics used to calculate the index are from before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is noteworthy that South Korea, Germany, and Israel, among others, ranked highly while showing leadership during the global pandemic.

South Korea’s reclaiming of the top spot was largely influenced by patent activity. South Korea ranked first in the patent activity category and received high evaluations, ranking second in both R&D and manufacturing value-added. The productivity category ranked 36th, the lowest among the evaluation items.

The United States fell two places to 11th. Bloomberg noted that the U.S. received a low evaluation in higher education, explaining that although foreign students have shown remarkable achievements in science and IT fields, discrimination and restrictions against them still exist. It added that former President Donald Trump’s visa policies and COVID-19 negatively affected the U.S. higher education evaluation.