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COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
‘There is quite a bit of university- industry collaboration and there is a good availability of scientists and engineers, but the backbone of Ireland’s innovativeness is reflected in patents’
India] are doing better in dif- ferent ways. They are improv- ing the functioning of their markets, technological adop- tion is speeding up and the business environments are be- coming more sophisticated. A lot of themhave stable macro- economic environments – in contrast to some eurozone countries.”
EUROPE’S POSITION Despite the economic unrest in Europe at the moment, Switzerland has held the top ranking in the Global Competi- tiveness Report for the past three years and seven of the 10 most competitive countries are European. Singapore overtook Sweden
for second position. Japan re- mains the second ranked Asian economy at ninth place, despite falling three places since last year. Within the eurozone, Ger-
many maintains a strong posi- tion at sixth place, down one
position fromlast year, while the Netherlands, ranked seventh, improves by one position in the rankings. France dropped three places to 18th, and Greece continues its downward trend to 90th. “Switzerland always does well in our rankings. Its strengths
lie in areas such as innovation capacity – there is a lot of collab- oration between business and the university sector and new ideas get to market quite well and quickly. “Couple thiswith one of the best governance structures in the
world in terms of transparency and efficiency and a stable macroeconomic environment when others are struggling, par- ticularly in Europe. Also there is a high level of technological adoption and markets are efficient,” Blanke explains. While the US continues to be No 1 in the report’s innovation
category, one of the things that caught the authors’ eyes this year was how it has been slipping down the overall rankings over the past few years. “Four years ago the US had the top ranking; it fell to second
place, then to fourth place and now fifth place this year. It con- tinues to be the innovation powerhouse but there had been fi- nancial markets concerns. “This is starting to look a little better, but not as good as it
used to be. Regarding the macroeconomic environment there are concerns about debt and there has been a loss in confidence in policy-makers to get done what needs to be done,” says Blanke.
26 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 “The counterpart to this is China, which has been going up
and up to reach 26th position this year in the rankings. This is the most pronounced example of the convergence we’re seeing between emerging economies and OECD countries. Emerging economies are converging to OECD level while the US is losing competitiveness and this is likely to continue.” Focusing on Ireland, this is the second year in a row that it
has been ranked 29th. Previously its position had gone down for two years in a row so it now appears to be stabilising.
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