The country also ranks 2nd out of 36 economies in the lower middle-incomegroup, with a performance above expectation for the level of development.
Vietnam continues to score above the lower middle-income group average in allinnovation pillars, and even achieves the same result when compared to theaverage of the upper-middle-income group, apart from human capital andresearch.
It ranks first worldwide in high-tech imports.
Region-wise, Vietnam is placed 10th among the 17 economies in Southeast Asia,East Asia, and Oceania.
It is also included in the middle-income economies with the fastest innovationcatch-up to date.
Vietnam is among the record-holders for outperforming in innovation for the12th year in a row, alongside India, Kenya, and the Republic of Moldova.
Specifically, the Southeast Asian country performed best in creative outputsand weakest in human capital and research.
However, a slight fallback is witnessed, which emphasised the importance ofsustaining innovation efforts over time.
Previously, Vietnam ranked 44th in 2021 and 42nd in 2020.
This year, the first place continues to belong to Switzerland, followed by theUS in second and Sweden in third.
Published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialisedagency under the United Nations, the GII tracks the current state of innovationglobally and ranks the innovative performance of 132 countries.
The 2022 focus is on the future of innovation-driven growth, analysing globalinnovation trends against the background of an ongoing pandemic, a slowing ofproductivity growth and other evolving challenges.
Two innovation waves in particular are identified as having the greatestpotential to improve productivity and change lives for the better – the DigitalAge and Deep Science.
Responses from WIPO member states last year revealed that more than 75countries use the GII either to improve their innovation ecosystem, strengtheninnovation metrics, or as a specific reference in economic policymaking./.