Thailand was ranked 41 among 133 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024, its highest place in a decade, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) has said.
The country climbed from 43rd place in last year's ranking while maintaining third place among the Asean countries, after Singapore (4th) and Malaysia (33rd), said the NIA.
The GII, by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), ranks world economies according to their innovation capabilities using roughly 80 indicators grouped into innovation inputs and outputs.
Switzerland was the first country in the top 10, followed by Sweden, the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
Overall, Thailand's innovation capability has improved greatly in certain input and output sub-indexes, which indicates the country has been on the right track regarding innovation promotion, said Krithpaka Boonfueng, executive director of the NIA.
Thailand's outstanding innovation indicators lie in the business system category, especially gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD), which is total expenditure on R&D, she said.
The country's ICT service exports and expenditure on education as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) are among the areas of innovation that Thailand will have to work harder to improve, she said.
Ms Krithpaka said several areas still require more government contribution, particularly in deciding which direction the country's innovation capability should take and how state agencies could help their private-sector partners.
Public sector researchers should also work more closely with the private sector to better understand the innovation market, she said.
The Ministry of Commerce will promote cooperation between the public and private sectors, she added.
