Judging by what was announced by the “Innovation Indicator 2007″ published by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Germany is close to the top of the list of most innovative countries. According to the study, Germany is in 8th position among 17 selected European and non-European countries. Even though last year Germany came 7th, the gap to the respective most innovative countries (i.e. the USA in 2006 and Sweden in 2007) could be slightly reduced.
Germany is particularly strong with regard to the criteria of “implementation” and “networking” between companies. This particularly applies to smaller companies which, according to the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi), quite often come up with globally leading niche products and which need to stay leaders by working together with research institutions.
For the first time ever this year´s „Innovation Indicator“ was combined with a long-term analysis. This revealed that since 1995 Germany has improved both in absolute figures and as far as its ranking is concerned (moved from 10th to 8th rank). Besides the strengths which consist in “implementation” and “networking” other aspects such as liberalization and deregulation are said to have had positive effects as well, e.g. in the telecom sector.
Unfortunately, the „Innovation Indicator“ also revealed that Germany is not leading in fields such as education. In addition, there is a backlog as far as the further training of entrepreneurs and the attitude of people with regard to innovation is concerned, said the experts involved.
Further information on the study is available online. 