Global Innovation Index: Korea Scores 14th in World

The Republic of Korea ranked 14th in the world behind Asian rivals Singapore and Hong Kong.
The top of the list, includes Switzerland, the U.K. Sweden, Netherlands and the United States.

The Global Innovation Index is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, INSEAD and Cornell University.

Korea received high marks in the: Human Capital & Research; Knowledge & Technology Output; and the Infrastructure main categories. Specifically, Korea received high marks in: Ease of Resolving Bankruptcies; Tertiary Education Enrollments; R & D Expenditures; Information & Communications Technologies; Knowledge Creation; Stock Market Valuation; and GERD sub-categories.

The GII is calculated by an average of the Innovation Input Sub-Index and the Innovation Output Sub-Index. The index includes 79 “indicators.” The index produces a raw score that is then weighted by country.

Korea received low marks in the: Regulatory Environment, Institutions; Creative Outputs; and Business Sophistication main categories. Specifically, Korea received low marks in: Political Stability; Cost of Redundancy; Rule of Law (Low for OECD); Regulatory Quality (Low for OECD); Ecological Sustainability; Applied Tariff Rate; Knowledge Intensive Employment Rate; GERD Financed from Abroad; FDI Inflows; and Inbound Tertiary Education sub-catefories.

We have seen no noticeable changes in the Regulatory Environment and Institutions for many years. The two major complaints we hear from clients is with regard to inflexibility in the labor market, cumbersome bureaucratic requirements, lack of sophistication in some government offices, and difficulty in getting licenses for unique product and services.

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Sean Hayes may be contacted at: SeanHayes@ipglegal.com.

Sean Hayes is co-chair of the Korea Practice Team at IPG Legal. He is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. Sean is ranked, for Korea, as one of only two non-Korean lawyers as a Top Attorney by AsiaLaw.

Sean’s profile may be found at: Sean C. Hayes