NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE
MINSK, 3 September (BelTA) - The development of infrastructure and improvement of the quality of education helped Belarus improve its positions in the Global Innovation Index 2020, Chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee of Belarus Aleksandr Shumilin told BelTA.
In 2020, Belarus ranked 64th in the Global Innovation Index, up eight positions year on year. The positive trend has remained for the second year in a row (the country was 86th in 2018, and 72nd in 2019). “The improvement in the rankings is the result of the work carried out in the country to develop the infrastructure of the innovation economy (including modern information technologies), improve business and institutional environment, as well as the quality of education,” said Aleksandr Shumilin.
In his words, the Global Innovation Index report was published for the 13th time. It has established itself as a valuable tool for benchmarking to annually assess progress in innovation development. According to the chairman of the State Science and Technology Committee, the key positive indicators that influenced the position of Belarus in the ranking were Mobile app creation (1st place), Females employed with advanced degrees (2nd), ISO 9001 quality certificates (5th), Government funding per secondary school student (8), Graduates in science and engineering (11th), ICT services exports (15th).
According to Aleksandr Shumilin, back in December 2018 the State Science and Technology Committee approved a plan of measures to improve Belarus' performance in the Global Innovation Index. In addition, the country's position in the ranking was significantly influenced by the events organized by the committee and the National Center for Intellectual Property together with the World Intellectual Property Organization. Meetings were held at the expert level, where representatives of Belarus had the opportunity to obtain advice from foreign specialists.
The Global Innovation Index reports are developed and published by the INSEAD (France), Cornell University (USA) and the World Intellectual Property Organization. The research covers 93.5% of the world population and 97.4% of world GDP.
This year's report contains a rating of innovation activities in 131 countries on 80 indicators, including infrastructure development, business environment, and quality of education. The top ten countries include Switzerland, Sweden, USA, the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Singapore, Germany and South Korea.
