SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATION IN GEORGIA IN THE DIMENSION OF GLOBAL EVALUATIONS: TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The paper explores the development of science, technology and innovation in Georgia over the last decade, reveals main tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. In a modern world, complex indexes are effectively utilized in order to evaluate the development of ST&I, perform a comparative analysis and ranking countries. This itself supports the definition of economic strategies in the countries for increasing the productivity and long-term development. The goal of study was to evaluate the tendencies of ST&I in Georgia for the time period of 2009-2019. A comparative analysis of progress has been carried out using Global Index of Innovation (GII) and the Global Competitiveness Index. According to the Global Innovation Index, the position of Georgia has significantly improved during the last 10 years and especially in the past 2 years. In comparison to 2015, Georgia improved its position in world ranking by 25 positions and by 50 positions - in comparison to 2009. In the report 2019 of Georgia›s Innovation and Technology Agency, it is highlighted that Georgia is innovatively better in comparison to its GDP (Cornell University & INSEAD & WIPO, 2019: 20). Georgia has the highest ranking in the following pillars of the index: institutional structure ( score – 74,3 and ranking -26) and market sophistication (score – 62.1 and ranking -15). In other pillars the country ranking range varies between 58-72 and score between 22.5-44.7. During 2011-2019, among all pillars of the index the following areas reached the highest scores in 2019: institutions, infrastructure and market sophistication. During the last decade all pillars of the index are progressing except knolwedge and technology outputs. In these the position and rating of Georgia has even become worse; in comparison to 2011 the ranking of Georgia in this group dropped and went down 25 positions. In 2019 Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency defined the strongest 10 indicators out of 98 indicators of sub-pillars; among these there are categories where Georgia has not progressed during 2011-2019. These are: Human resources and research, knowledge and technology and creative outputs. However, it has to be mentioned that the following sub-pillars are considered as the weakness of Georgia and consequently have a lower rating: ecological sustainability (score 91), knowledge diffusion (score 86), knowledge workers (score 81), trade, competition and market scale (score 79), knowledge absorbation (78), research and development (75) (Cornell University, INSEAD, and WIPO, 2019: 258). According to Global Competitiveness Index and similar to Global Innovation Index the position of Georgia during 2009-2018 has significantly improved. In comparison to 2009, Georgia went up 24 positions. The data show that the group of innovation capability is the greatest challenge for achieving a high score on a global scale. Despite the fact that GII in Georgia is characterized by improving tendency during 2009-2019, the analysis of indexes confirms that the hindering factors for achieving high score on a global scale and becoming a competitive country for Georgia are: knowledge and technology, research and development, creativity and innovation capabilities; this reconfirms that the development of science, technology and innovation remains one of the major challenges for Georgia.