The country’s ranking in the GII has continuously improved, moving from 59th in 2016 to 44th in 2024, and remaining stable in 2025.

Vietnam continued to improve its innovation input sub-index ranking, rising three places from 53rd in 2023 to 50th in 2025. It gauges elements of the economy that enable and facilitate innovative activities and is grouped into five pillars, namely Institutions, Human capital and research, Infrastructure, Market sophistication, and Business sophistication.

Meanwhile, the country’s innovation output sub-index ranked higher than its innovation input despite a slight drop of one position compared to 2024—from 36th to 37th in 2025. It is based on two pillars - Knowledge & technology outputs and Creative outputs.

Vietnam is also in 2nd position in lower middle-income group economies, just behind India.

Among upper-middle-income countries, only three rank higher than Vietnam, namely China (10th), Malaysia (34th), and Turkey (43rd). All other countries that ranked above Vietnam are developed, high-income economies that spend heavily on research and development (R&D) and gross domestic product (GDP).

In ASEAN region, Vietnam ranks third, behind only Singapore and Malaysia, and ahead of Thailand.

For 15 consecutive years, Vietnam has consistently achieved innovation performance above its level of development, demonstrating strong efficiency in converting innovation inputs into outputs.

It is also one of the three countries, alongside China and Ethiopia, with the fastest labour productivity growth during the 2014–2024 period.

The progress Vietnam has achieved in the 2025 GII reaffirms the soundness of the Party and Government’s development strategy centred on science, technology, and innovation. Maintaining its ranking, along with outperforming its level of development, highlights Vietnam’s effective use of input resources to generate strong innovation outcomes.

To achieve a breakthrough, the country needs to continue focusing on improving foundational pillars such as institutions, education and training, digital infrastructure, and venture capital. At the same time, it is essential to strengthen research capacity, scientific publications, and competitiveness in creative industries.

The GII, published annually by the WIPO, assesses economies based on innovation inputs such as institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market and business sophistication; and innovation outputs, including knowledge, technology, and creative products. This year’s GII tracked innovation performance across 139 economies using 78 indicators from international public and private sources.

Vietnam makes it into Top 50 economies in Global Innovation Index 2023

VOV.VN - The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) Report 2023 on September 27, ranking Vietnam 46th out of 132 countries and territories worldwide, up two notches compared to the 2022 report.