Hanoi (VNS/VNA)- Vietnam has jumped two positions to reach 45th place on the Global InnovationIndex (GII) 2018 released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

This is the highest achievement the country has ever gained, marking asignificant growth in knowledge creation, research and development.

Improvements in educational investment are key for Vietnamese innovation, thereport points out. Vietnam has topped ASEAN countries in expenditure oneducation since 2017 by spending 5.7 percent of its GDP for teaching andlearning activities.

Regarding education in the category of human capital and research, Vietnam occupies18th place out of 126 countries. By issuing Resolution 29 on education reformin 2013, the Government demonstrated its commitment to promoting high qualityhuman resources and research, especially in higher education.

The percentage of university lecturers acquiring PhDs and master’s degrees rosefrom 14.4 percent to 21.8 percent, and 47 percent to 59.4 percent,respectively, between 2012 and 2017.

More than 50 percent of Vietnam’s scientists work in educational institutions,contributing to the development of training and research quality.

By the end of 2017, there were 945 research groups in the country’suniversities.

According to Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc from Vietnam National University-Hanoi,between 2017 and June 2018, Vietnam’s top 30 universities released more than10,500 research publications, equal to all national publications in the fiveyears from 2011 to 2015.

From 2011 to 2016, the Ministry of Education and Training invested more than 292billion VND (12.5 million USD) in 46 projects on enhancing research capacity.These projects focused on providing modern equipment for labs and researchfacilities, expecting to create applicable products serving the country’ssocio-economic development.

More than 1,400 science and technology organisations have been establishedunder 142 surveyed universities. Top universities of technology in Hanoi, Da Nangand HCM City are also accelerating technology exchange and calling forinvestment from both domestic and international agencies for researchactivities.

Vietnam National University - Hanoi, and Vietnam National University - HCMCity are named in the QS 1000 World University Rankings while Hanoi Universityof Science and Technology is ranked among the 505 best Asian universities by QSin the period 2018-19.

The 2018 GII provides detailed metrics about the innovation performance of 126countries and economies around the world. Its 80 indicators touch upon a largefield of innovation, covering factors of political environment, education,infrastructure and business sophistication.

Not only analysing the energy innovation landscape of the next decade, but italso discovers breakthroughs in energy production, storage, distribution, andconsumption as well as their impacts on countries’ educational improvements.-VNS/VNA