SINGAPORE, 23 October 2019 - The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organizes a regional briefing on the Global Innovation Index (GII).
At the invitation of the Executive Director of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Dr. Rebecca Sta Maria, the WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) delivered an information session on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 to program directors and other key staff of the APEC.
Dr. Sta Maria opened the event by expressing interest in the way the GII could potentially deliver tremendous value to the various APEC fora, APEC’s 21 member economies and APEC staff. WSO Director Mr. Denis Croze responded by highlighting the overarching objectives of WIPO and how the GII has developed over time to be the organization’s flagship publication. He went on to mention the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth and prosperity, and the need for a broad vision of innovation applicable to both developed and emerging economies. He also referred to the World Intellectual Property Indicators as another key WIPO report which was recently published.
Senior Program Officer at the WSO, Mr. Peter Willimott then gave the audience an in-depth “tour” of the Index, highlighting the innovation output and input sub-indices, the robustness and variety of data sources that WIPO relies upon to produce the Index and the key findings related to each of the 19 participating APEC Member Economies. He also highlighted the innovation achievers from APEC that were outperforming on innovation relative to their GDP, including the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.