Driving Innovation in ASEAN
March 2, 2022
The WIPO Singapore Office was proud to jointly organize a webinar with the ASEAN Secretariat on the Global Innovation Index 2021. The webinar focused on the ASEAN results using the Index as a driver to enhance innovation, and case studies from three ASEAN Member States.
265 government officials and IP stakeholders from all 10 ASEAN Member States and 10 Member States from other parts of the world joined the webinar.
The webinar was opened by WIPO Deputy Director Mr. Hasan Kleib, himself a national of Indonesia. DDG Kleib outlined the impressive growth in innovation within the ASEAN region, specifically he mentioned that the innovation performance of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam was above expectation for their level of development. Whilst Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia were meeting the expectations for their respective level of development.
Mr. Satvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary-General of the ASEAN Secretariat, also provided opening remarks in which he highlighted the strong performance in certain areas of the GII of various ASEAN member States. He also was encouraged by the response to the webinar and expressed a desire for a briefing on the GII for ASEAN government officials to become an annual event.
Mr. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, Head, Composite Indicator Research Section, Department for Economics and Data Analytics, IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, WIPO, Geneva shared two presentations:
- Introduction to the global Innovation Index (GII) that discussed how the GII measures innovation, the way innovation was impacted by the pandemic and the way policy makers can use the GII as a strategic tool
- Spotlight on ASEAN performance in the 2021 GII in which he highlighted key strengths and opportunities for each ASEAN Member State.
The Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam were represented by the following speakers:
- Ms. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, PhD, Undersecretary for Research and Development, Department of Science and Technology, Manila
- Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director, National Innovation Agency, Bangkok
- Dr. Hoang Minh, President, Viet Nam Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Science and Technology
Each speaker provided details on how their country uses the GII and the approach they take to innovation policy creation and implementation in their respective countries.
Some of the key messages from the country representatives included: taking a whole of government approach; involving the private sector; a commitment to supplying good quality data to allow meaningful metric analysis to take place; appointing responsible government agencies to manage specific criteria within the GII; being willing to make changes; and be an innovative government.