Switzerland tops Global Innovation Index again

The GII 2023 uses 80 indicators to track global innovation trends in 130-plus economies, guiding policy makers and business leaders in stimulating human ingenuity. This year, the report’s findings are unveiled against a background of slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, high interest rates and geopolitical conflict.

For a 13th consecutive year, Switzerland ranks first in the GII (Figure 10). It is the global leader in innovation outputs, ranking first in both Knowledge and technology outputs and Creative outputs.

Switzerland's strengths are broadly diversified. In the Government effectiveness indicator, Switzerland is ranked second, while Policies for Doing Business is even ranked first. University-industry R&D collaboration is also rated very highly (1st place). In addition, the country scores well on several indicators relating to patents. Switzerland is also ranked first for high-tech manufacturing. 

Only a few weaknesses can be identified. In the area of venture capital, however, the result is mixed. The number of Swiss venture capital investors is relatively high. Switzerland ranks 9th in this area. In terms of the number of financing rounds of domestic start-ups, Switzerland makes it to 8th place. The situation looks worse when it comes to invested capital. In terms of total invested capital, Switzerland is only in 24th place, and in terms of the Unicorn Valuation indicator, it ranks only 28th.

A certain weakness is also evident in the area of ICT services. Switzerland ranks only 49th in the ICT Services Exports indicator.Im GII folgen Schweden und die USA auf den Plätzen 2 und 3. Sweden overtakes the United States (US) to climb to second position. Sweden leads in Business sophistication (1st), Infrastructure (2nd) and Human capital and research (3rd). It holds top positions for its Researchers (1st) and its Knowledge-intensive employment (3rd). The United States continues to head the league table of scoring best in the world in 13 of the 80 GII 2023 innovation indicators. It is number one in the world in indicators that include Global corporate R&D investors, Venture capital received, the quality of its universities, the combined valuation of its unicorn companies, software spending and the value of corporate Intangible asset intensity.

Singapore enters the top five, and takes the leading position among South East Asia, East Asia and Oceania (SEAO) region economies. Finland (6th) gets closer to the top five, gaining three ranks this year. It comes top worldwide in Infrastructure (1st). The Netherlands (7^th), Germany (8^th), Denmark (9th) and the Republic of Korea (10th) remain in the top 10.

The 2023 edition identifies an increasingly uncertain outlook for the venture capital (VC) that helps transform human ingenuity into new products and services, with the global value of VC funding marking a significant plunge last year.

It remains to be seen how this development will affect Switzerland. It is not unlikely that strengths and weaknesses will be accentuated, i.e. that the number of investments will remain more stable than in other countries, while the invested capital will tend to decline more strongly.

You can download the country profile for Switzerland below.

(Press release / SK)