The country is No. 1 in the European Innovation Scoreboard rankings for the 12th consecutive year. Shown is Samsung Electronics' exhibition booth in January 2024 in Las Vegas at this year's CES, the world's largest exhibition of household appliances and information and communications technology. (Samsung Electronics)

By Israa Mohamed

The country is No. 1 in the rankings of the European Innovation Scoreboard for the 12th consecutive year.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Aug. 6 said Korea's innovation score of 119 this year was the highest among competitor countries, according to the European Commission.

Since 2001, the annual survey results are announced by the EC based on comparisons of the innovation results of 27 European Union member states, 12 neighboring countries and 11 global competitors.

The results are based on 32 statistical indicators in four categories: framework conditions, investments, innovation activities and impacts. Global competitors like Korea receive assessment using only 19 of the indicators.

Scoring higher than Canada (115), the U.S. (107), China (95) and Japan (93) this year, Korea also did better than the EU average of 100 or above in 11 of the 19 indicators. 

Korea was also dominant in trademark (608.6 points) and design applications (309) as well as investment for business research and development (250).

The country, however, was behind in the categories of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with product (28.4) and business process innovations (12.2) and air emissions by fine particulates PM 2.5 in industry (59.1).

The ministry said, "Through support for innovation activities of SMEs, carbon neutrality policy, and promotion of global R&D policies and projects, we will improve on our weak indexes."

ess8@korea.kr