The country also ranks 2nd out of 36 economies in the lower middle-income group, with a performance above expectation for the level of development.
Vietnam continues to score above the lower middle-income group average in all innovation pillars, and even achieves the same result when compared to the average of the upper-middle-income group, apart from human capital and research.
It ranks first worldwide in high-tech imports.
Region-wise, Vietnam is placed 10th among the 17 economies in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.
It is also included in the middle-income economies with the fastest innovation catch-up to date.
Vietnam is among the record-holders for outperforming in innovation for the 12th year in a row, alongside India, Kenya, and the Republic of Moldova.
Specifically, the Southeast Asian country performed best in creative outputs and weakest in human capital and research.
However, a slight fallback is witnessed, which emphasised the importance of sustaining innovation efforts over time.
Previously, Vietnam ranked 44th in 2021 and 42nd in 2020.
This year, the first place continues to belong to Switzerland, followed by the US in second and Sweden in third.
Published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialised agency under the United Nations, the GII tracks the current state of innovation globally and ranks the innovative performance of 132 countries.
The 2022 focus is on the future of innovation-driven growth, analysing global innovation trends against the background of an ongoing pandemic, a slowing of productivity growth and other evolving challenges.
Two innovation waves in particular are identified as having the greatest potential to improve productivity and change lives for the better – the Digital Age and Deep Science.
Responses from WIPO member states last year revealed that more than 75 countries use the GII either to improve their innovation ecosystem, strengthen innovation metrics, or as a specific reference in economic policymaking.
