Malta continued to be among the “moderate innovators” within the EU in 2011, according to the latest EU Innovation Scoreboard published by the Commission in Brussels yesterday.
Member states were placed in four categories: Leaders; Followers; Moderate Innovators and Modest Innovators – the island was once again placed in the third category with Italy, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece and Slovakia.
Malta’s position, 21 out of 27, is worse than last year, when still in the same category, Malta placed 20th, after Hungary placed before Malta.
The annual study, the second of its kind, compares 25 innovation indicators among the 27 EU member states and also with the situation of other leading global economies such as the US, Japan and China.
According to this year’s technical analysis, Malta’s main weakness was low levels of both public and private investment in research and development, well below the EU average, and the lack of quality human resources, particularly due to the average low level of education, when compared to the rest of the EU.
At the same time, the study notes “high growth for new doctorate graduates, international scientific co-publications, community trademarks and knowledge-intensive services exports.”
Although Malta is clearly not performing well in this competitive area, the EU’s general picture is more worrying considering the size of its economy and the fact that it is falling behind global economies, particularly the US and Japan.
At an EU level, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland remain by far the leaders in innovation, however, their total output is dampened by the low performance of most of the member states in the bloc.
The study shows that innovation performance growth is slowing down and the EU is not closing the persistent gap with global innovation leaders US, Japan and South Korea.
“The EU still maintains a clear lead over the emerging economies of China, Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa, however, China is improving its innovation performance and is catching up progressively,” the study states.
Addressing a press conference to launch the study, Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani warned that the EU should try to do much more in this sector if it wants to grow further.
“This year’s results are a clear warning that more efforts to boost innovation are needed. If we want to close the gap with our main economic partners and to overcome the current crisis, innovation deserves all our attention,” he said.