The vice president for science and technology affairs stated: according to the latest Global Innovation Index (GII) report, Iran’s rank has been improved in the field of innovation and its rank has been changed to 61 with a four-step enhancement.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Sorena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology affairs, announced the improvement of Iran in terms of GII, expressing: the latest report published on GII, Iran has witnessed an improvement in the innovation field and has been ranked 61 in the world with a four-step enhancement. The GII report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) explains the innovation and economic status of 130 countries at the national level in the form of seven dimensions and 80 indexes.

Sattari appreciated the family and members forming the ecosystem of innovation and technology of Iran and talked about the growing improvement in the innovation ecosystem of the country. In this regard, he affirmed: amid sanctions against Iran by the United States and Europe and several limitations and challenges of the country, the publication of the latest GII report by an institution affiliated to the United Nations shows a four-step improvement in Iran in the field of innovation.

According to Sattari, the GII report is one of the most valid international ranking systems of countries based on their innovation ability. In this context, he declared: this report is published annually and assesses companies with a balanced model and their innovation status on the economic foundation based on the development of infrastructure, institutional, legal, and business considerations, industrial production, science production, and industrial and knowledge-based export.

Rapid Growth of Iran Based on Global Index in the 11^th and 12^th Governments

The president of the national elites foundation considered an ascending trend for the growth of Iran based on the data of this research, claiming: in the latest GII report, Iran was among the limited countries with a high level of growth in the field of innovation and was ranked 61. Meanwhile, according to the report of this institution in 2014, which was concomitant with the start of work of the 11^th government, our country’s rank was 120, which has changed to 61 today, showing a 60-step improvement in the GII of the country.

He added: the GII report has two input and output dimensions. In the input dimension, five topics are evaluated, including institutions, human and research capital, infrastructure, and market and business complexity. In the output dimension, topics related to knowledge, technology, and creativity are assessed.

The vice president for science and technology affairs regarded the status of Iran to be favorable in the field of outputs of innovation, adding: regarding the dimensions of innovation outputs, Iran has been ranked 47 among 130 countries. On the other hand, Iran has achieved the 61^st rank in the area of dimensions of innovation inputs.

In this respect, Iran has been ranked 13 among 34 countries with middle-up earnings and was ranked second among nine countries in the central and south Asia. 

The vice president for science and technology affairs talked about the improvement of position of Iran in terms of nine factors compared to the last year, asserting: these indicators include the use of information and communication technologies, online state services, online contribution, logistic performance related to export and import, government expenditure on education, per capita government spending per student, registered patents in at least two international headquarters, import with advanced technology, and export of information technology and communication services.

Sattari regarded the infrastructural support of development of knowledge-based economy in the past few years to be effective in the progress of the country, continuing: it is notable that Iran’s rank in the field of creativity infrastructure and outputs has significantly improved, compared to the last year, in a way that it has improved by 19 and 14 ranks.

He added: according to the cruel sanctions against various institutions and organizations of the country in the past year, Iran has had a negative growth in the field of institutions, which is not significant considering the severity of sanctions.

Growth of Indicators with the Help of the Booming of Innovation Ecosystem

In the end, Sattari appreciated all elements forming the innovation ecosystem, including universities, innovation centers, science and technology parks, knowledge-based companies, professors, students, and startups activists, for exerting efforts to improve this field in the country.