Muscat – The technical committee tasked with the project of improving Oman’s performance in the Global Innovation Index held its first periodic meeting on Tuesday.

The committee discussed various aspects of the project and cooperation with the departments concerned, including the National Competitiveness Office and Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit.

H E Dr Saif Abdullah al Hadabi, Undersecretary for Research and Innovation in the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and head of the committee, chaired the meeting, which also considered devising a national plan for the improvement of Oman’s performance in the Global Innovation Index.

The Global Innovation Index, issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) since 2007, is aimed at helping policy makers around the world improve their understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their national innovation systems. It also seeks to define ways to draft informed approaches to national policies.

The Global Innovation Index for the year 2022 show that Oman ranked 79th among 132 countries evaluated in the report. Oman’s highest performance was in the ‘human capital and research’ criteria, while the country’s lowest performance was in the ‘business environment’ category.