Taiwan Achieved Remarkable Innovation Capacity Index.

To deal with the knowledge-based economy era, innovation capacity is a factor critical to development of the national productivity and economic growth and also held as the representation of the national competitive strength”, indicated by Council for Economic Planning and Development.  According to the “OECD Science, Technology, and Industry Outlook 2010" published by Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in December 2010, OECD state members and emerging economies will invest in R&D of innovations and promote the relevant policies on an on-going basis to enable the economic growth.  To cope with the global important economies’ investment in R&D of innovations, Taiwan needs to continue enhancing the investment in the R&D of innovations to ensure its competitive strength.

According to Council for Economic Planning and Development, the reports published by European Business School (EBS) and World Economic Forum (WEF) in the recent years show that Taiwan achieved remarkable innovation capacity index and number of claims index.

The “2010-2011 Innovative Development Report” published by EBS in November 2010 (see Table 1) indicated that Taiwan’s Innovation Capacity Index (ICI) has ranked one of the top 10 (9th place) for the first time among 131 countries in the world, advanced by 4 places from 2009.

The “2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report” published by WEF in September 2010, Taiwan ranked 7th place in the world in the area of “innovation and maturity”, advanced 1 place from 2009.  Above all, the number of claims index score per 1 million persons was 287.1 in Taiwan, ranking 1st place for three consecutive years, and the score has been escalated increasingly.  It is identified as the most competitive index achieved by Taiwan (see Table 2).

Recently, Taiwan Government has been continuously dedicated to improving the entire innovation environment to enhance the innovation capacity.  The “Statute for Industrial Innovation” passed in May 2010 is intended to build the perfect innovation environment.  Meanwhile, the “Program for the Promotion of Invention Patent Industrialization” passed in September 2010 is dedicated to integrating the governmental project and program resources to make the innovation energy work out in new products or industries.  To deal with the various countries’ successive investment in R&D of innovations, Taiwan shall keep enhancing the R&D of innovations to maintain its national economic development and ensure its competitive strength following the post financial crisis.  (2011.01)

Table 1　EBS’ rank on ICI for the countries surveyed
	2010-2011	2009-2010
Sweden	1	1
Switzerland	2	4
Singapore	3	6
Finland	4	2
U.S.A.	5	3
Denmark	6	11
Canada	7	7
Holland	8	5
Taiwan	9	13
Luxemburg	10	11
Source: Innovative Development Report by EBS

 

Table 2　Number of utility patents granted (per million population) compiled by WEF
	2010-2011		2009-2010		2008-2009
	Rank	Score	Rank	Score	Rank	Score
Taiwan	1	287.1	1	279.3	1	270.4
Japan	2	279.1	2	263.3	3	260.0
U.S.A.	3	261.7	3	250.9	2	261.7
Israel	4	195.0	4	166.6	5	158.1
Korea	5	181.4	5	156.0	7	130.9
Finland	6	163.0	6	155.5	4	160.4
Switzerland	7	158.9	7	148.3	6	141.8
Sweden	8	110.2	8	115.2	8	116.6
Germany	9	109.5	9	108.1	9	109.4
Canada	10	108.8	10	102.2	10	100.9
Source: The Global Competitiveness Report compiled by WEF

/DC