The Czech economy has improved its position in the annual Bloomberg 2019 Innovation Index by three places to the 25th position, the biggest improvement among other Central European countries, published on January 22. Ukraine was the worst performer in the index, falling nine places.

The Czech Republic put in the sixth strongest performance in added-value from manufacturing, just behind Ireland, North Korea, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. The worst score was achieved in interest in tertiary education (38th place) and density of domestic high-tech companies (47th place), factors that are taking into account aviation and defence, biotechnology and renewable energy companies.

According to the Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office Kamila Buresova at the press conference, daily Hospodarske Noviny reporting, industrial robots in the Czech Republic are used by 16% of companies in manufacturing industry. 53% of big companies with more than 250 employees and 6% of small business are robotized.

South Korea retained the first place, making it the most innovative country in the world for 2019. The worst performance was recorded by Tunisia and Ukraine, down by 9 and 7 spots year-on-year, respectively. Bloomberg surveyed more than 200 economies, out of which only 95 had data available for evaluation. The best 60 innovative economies were published.

Bloomberg is analysing seven main factors, such research and development spending, manufacturing capability, productivity of citizens, number of high-tech companies, interest in tertiary education, concentration of researchers working on research and development and patent activity.