Bulgaria Ranked 43rd in 2012 Global Innovation Index

Bulgaria ranks 43rd in the 2012 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) of the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in France and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland.

Croatia ranks right before Bulgaria, while the majority of countries on the Balkans are after Bulgaria, like Montenegro (45th), Serbia (46th), Romania (52nd) and Macedonia (62nd).

The first thee places in the ranking are occupied by Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore.

GII 2012 is the fifth edition of the ranking.

INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, a specialized agency of the United Nations) co-publish The Global Innovation Index (GII) since 2012, while the ranking was previously published by INSEAD.

GII spans a total of 141 industrialized and developing countries.

Switzerland has been at the top of the innovation-based ranking since 2011.

The remaining countries in the top ten of GII 2012 are Finland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland and the United States.

"The GII is a timely reminder that policies to promote innovation are critical to the debate on spurring sustainable economic growth," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said.

"The downward pressure on investment in innovation exerted by the current crisis must be resisted. Otherwise we risk durable damage to countries' productive capacities," he cautioned.

The global innovation leaders by regions are Switzerland in Europe, the United States in North America, Singapore in Southeast Asia and Oceania, Israel in North Africa/Middle East, Chile in Latin America, India in Central Asia and the Mauritius in Sub-Saharan Africa.