The Index has been designed to compare Dubai with 28 global cities on macroeconomic measures of innovation and to analyze innovation performance of Dubai’s private sector, including at the firm level. Through the Index, the Chamber wants to create awareness and increase the participation of the private sector in the total innovation efforts of the city of Dubai, and provide a benchmark to measure innovation.
In the Report, London has emerged as the most innovative city, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore respectively. Dubai ranks 16th across 28 global cities, ahead of cities such as Madrid, Milan, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai and Beijing.
H.E. Hamad Buamim, President and CEO, Dubai Chamber remarked the Chamber is cognizant of the importance of innovation, now more than ever, for an economy to grow and sustain in this dynamic global scenario.
“That is why we decided to launch the Index and have been very open and transparent about the parameters we have used to set a benchmark for measuring innovation. We hope the results of the survey will act as a catalyst for simulating innovation in the private sector in Dubai and promote their participation in the process of innovation.”
“PwC is proud to be part of the development of the Dubai Innovation Index with Dubai Chamber. This is a unique and comprehensive index that evaluates and compares macroeconomic data to private sector views of a city,” Dr. Anil Khurana, Partner, Strategy & Innovation, PwC, pointed out.
The aim of the Index is to identify what is Dubai’s position in the global innovation scenario, what are the challenges and opportunities faced by the private sector when it comes to innovation and what can businesses and government do to promote innovation. According to the Report, the “enabler” score was higher than the “performance” score, which means that the innovation ecosystem is in place, with a high score for government support and fostering a culture for innovation.
In this firs-of-its-kind Index, Dubai has scored well on several enablers, namely “Government support” and “building the culture of innovation”, and scored average on “funding” and “political, economic and social environment” elements. However, lower scores for “infrastructure for innovation” and “skills & talent” suggest these areas require improvement.
The Index, which measures innovation within the 61 indicators, shows Dubai's superiority in the field of output and performance, particularly in the launch of new products and services and outputs of technology. However, intellectual property and opportunities for collaboration with institutions and economies for scientific work need some more attention.
Survey results of Dubai’s private sector indicate that “implementation of ideas” and “retention of talent” are key challenges to build innovation capabilities and lead to a low score for “intellectual capital”
The analysis also highlighted the important role being played by the government in driving the innovation agenda forward and having a long-term vision – something the private sector needs to focus on and work closely with the public sector.
The Healthcare industry leads innovation for private sector industries, with an innovation score of 60.25, followed closely by Media & Marketing (60.06) and ICT (59.29). Manufacturing, Education, Training & Research and Transport & Logistics have scored average on the innovation index relative to the other industries, whereas Construction & Real Estate, Financial, Insurance & Legal Services and Agriculture, Fishing & Forestry score amongst the low performing industries in innovation.
With a focus on these eight key sectors the Index will definitely stimulate the private sector and inspire them to participate in Dubai’s innovation initiatives to remain ahead of the rest.
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