Thailand ranked 48th among 125 countries

Thailand's global innovation ranking shows an improvement, being in the 48th place under the Global Innovation Index 2011 compared to the 60th in the previous year.

In this year, it is ranked the 9th in the East Asia region. In 2009, its global place was the 44th.

Introduced in 2007, the survey by INSEAD business school aims to show the link of innovation and economic prosperity. Covering 125 economies, accounting for 93.2 per cent of the world's population and 98 per cent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (in current US dollars), the 2011 report shows that innovation is coming into its own as an essential element of resilience as economies aim to sustain their growth while creating new jobs for their citizens. The index covers five main pillars capturing elements of the national economy that enable innovative activities - institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication. Complimenting them are two output pillars - scientific outputs and creative outputs.

In the 2011 survey, Switzerland is ranked No.1, followed by Sweden and Singapore. Among countries from the East Asia region, Korea's ranking is now at the 16th, well beyond Japan's 20th, China's 29th, Malaysia's 31st, Vietnam's 51st, and India's 62nd.

Patchima Thanasanti, director-general of the Department of Intellectual Property, noted that the report shows that emerging markets like India and Korea have put greater emphasis on industrial innovation.

"They are more involved in fashion industry which has been dominated by designers from Europe. These emerging designers have blended inovation and local cultures into their products. New innovation is also applied in packaging designs, to add product value," she said.