The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced at their mega CES2019 event in Las Vegas that 16 out of 61 countries are leading the world in having the best environment for innovation according to its new 2019 International Innovation Scorecard. This year's Innovation Champions are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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During the CTA keynote, the Netherlands' State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Mona Keijzer, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for International Trade Dr. Liam Fox and Estonia's Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps joined Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA, onstage to accept the Innovation Champion awards on behalf of their countries.
"These countries are world-class leaders in growing innovation," said Shapiro. "When it comes to technology and policy, they value disruptive innovators. To be leaders in innovation, nations must drop protectionist rules and end barriers that limit them from creating the next great startups that will change the world for the better."
The new Innovation Champions include first-time honorees Germany and Israel. Germany climbed into the highest tier thanks to improved new business growth and widespread access to telecommunications and online services. In Israel, over half (51.5 percent) of its workforce is employed in high-skilled jobs, almost half (46.8 percent) of its college students earn degrees in STEM fields — second only to Singapore – and 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) goes toward research and development (R&D), more than any other country on the Scorecard.
Overall, Innovation Champions typically outperform other countries in measures of Freedom, Broadband, Entrepreneurial Activity, Resiliency – a new category to quantify the degree to which a country's government and society are sustainable – and Self-Driving Vehicles.
The International Innovation Scorecard is a comparative analysis across 14 different categories including average broadband speeds, sharing economy policies, adoption of self-driving vehicles, drone regulations and the ability of a country to withstand and recover from disasters. For more information visit www.internationalscorecard.com.
