KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 12): Malaysia has been ranked twelfth on a new creative productivity index developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

In a statement on its website today, the ADB said the index ranked Japan and Korea as countries most efficient in the Asia and Pacific region at turning creative inputs into tangible innovation.

Myanmar, Pakistan, and Cambodia, by contrast, are ranked as the least efficient innovators.

Bindu N Lohani, ADB vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development, said as countries sought to innovate to avoid middle-income traps, all governments —especially those with limited resources— need to ensure their investments boost both efficiency and productivity, benefiting their economies and people, while moving to a knowledge-based economy.

The ADB said creative productivity was an important attribute of knowledge-based economic development and the new index gives policy makers a unique tool to assess how to best foster innovation and creativity.

It said while measures would differ by country, policies that make it easier to set up businesses and create flexible labour markets would benefit, as would greater investment in education, skills, information and communications technologies, and internet access.

The ADB said the Creative Productivity Index differed from existing innovation-related indices by focusing on how efficiently countries turn their creative inputs into innovation outputs rather than just the absolute level of creative inputs.

“This allows countries to seek the most effective and affordable innovation investments.

“It also captures elements of creativity that are more relevant in less developed countries, such as agricultural innovation,” it said.

The ADB said the index used 36 input indicators to measure the capacity and incentives for innovation, including how many global top 500 universities a country has, the urbanisation rate, spending on research and development, protection of intellectual property rights, and corruption and bureaucracy.

It said the eight output indicators to measure innovation include the number of patents filed, export sophistication, value-added to agriculture, and the number of books and films produced.

It added that on innovation inputs alone, Singapore topped the rankings with strong political institutions, protection of intellectual property, and contract enforcement.

Among Asian countries, Hong Kong, China topped the list in terms of innovation outputs due to a high level of export sophistication and its prolific film production industry, said the ADB.