As Iva Grubisa/Novac writes on the 25th of July, 2019, the Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2019 has not brought good news to Croatia.
Croatia fell three places compared to last year and took 44th place out of a total of 129 countries involved in the research conducted by Cornwell University, the INSEAD Business School and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) for twelve years.
Switzerland has retained its position of the most innovative country in the world, Sweden rose from third place to take second place, while the bronze for innovation went to the United States of America, which rose from 6th place back in 2018. Analysts also saw China stand out and continue climbing. China is now in 14th position and is the only country in the group of middle income countries that managed to find itself in the top 30.
As some of the weakest points for Croatia, the utterly needless complexity of simply starting a business has been highlighted, where Croatia comes in at a truly embarrassing 95th place, followed by the number of foreign students who decide to study in Croatia, where the country also takes 98th place, followed by the cooperation between the economy and science where it comes in even lower – at a shameful 111th place.
When compared with countries with high income per capita, among which Croatia is actually ranked, the country stands very poorly in terms of the regulatory frameworks and the rule of law, as well as the availability and use of information and telecommunication technologies.
This embarrassingly poor result is not surprising to Tajana Barančić, president of the Association of Croatian Independent Exporters of Software, because, as she herself says, Croatia does very little in that segment.
There are opportunities in EU funds for funding R&D projects, but as she says, Croatia is infamous for being slow and for further complicating matters.
“My prognosis is that we’ll drop another couple of places by next year. I’ll be happy if it turns out I’m wrong,” Barančić states.
However, Croatia’s results have been estimated by the authors of the research in line with realistic expectations, taking into account the degree of the country’s economic development.
Among the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia is the best of them all, taking an impressive 31st place. The Slovenes are particularly well-placed in terms of Gross Domestic Research and Development Expenditure (GERD) in the business sector where they are ranked 6th. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the worst with 76th place, followed by Serbia with 57th place and Montenegro, which is up to 45th place. The biggest jump was made by North Macedonia, which has taken 59th place this year, after being in 84th place last year.
Otherwise, the analysis also points out that although world economic growth is slowing down compared to 2018, innovation is indeed gaining momentum around the globe. However, the authors warn that small investments in research and development, and the potential strengthening of protectionist policies could considerably limit international cooperation and the much needed exchange of knowledge.
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