Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are gaining a reputation of innovation darlings. They are propelling a dramatic rise in the Central and South Asia region’s standing as a hub for knowledge creation and technological outputs, according to a new survey.

The Global Innovation Index 2025, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), describes Central and South Asia’s rise in its rankings as “a standout development this year,” adding that the region has surpassed Latin America and the Caribbean in its annual rankings for the first time. “This shift is driven by a strong output performance from India, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,” the report states.

It lauds Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as India, for making steady progress in a variety of areas, including knowledge creation, technological outputs and human capital development. Uzbekistan has risen to 79th out of 139 countries surveyed in the Global Index; Kazakhstan is right behind at 81st.

“These economies have built a strong culture of technology adoption and entrepreneurship and are demonstrating that a focus on innovation outputs – whether through high-tech exports, research linkages or entrepreneurship – can allow an economy to leap ahead in the rankings, even if that economy does not have the most advanced innovation system,” the report reads.

Uzbekistan is classified as a “dynamic overperformer” for the fourth consecutive year. It is cited for its progress in labour productivity growth, “creating an enabling business environment” and “rising economic efficiency.” The rankings also characterise “graduates in science and engineering,” “entrepreneurship policies and culture” and “finance for startups and scaleups” as areas of strength.

The evaluation of Kazakhstan points to secondary and higher education, information and communication technologies and power generating capacity as areas of strength.

Elsewhere, the study’s evaluations of Kyrgyzstan (96th) and Tajikistan (108th) were “in line with level of development” within the category of lower middle-income economies. The study did not evaluate Turkmenistan’s capacity for innovation.

Although considered rising stars, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were not the best performers among former Soviet republics. The South Caucasus states of Georgia (56th) and Armenia (59th) were judged to have somewhat more innovative environments. Russia (60th), Ukraine (66th) and Moldova (74th) also ranked slightly higher than the Central Asian states. Belarus (85th) and Azerbaijan (94th) lagged behind.

Looking at the global picture, the 2025 survey notes the environment for innovation is now “more uniformly positive” than in recent years, when “results were more mixed.” At the same time, the Index describes innovation investment growth as being at “an historically low level.”

“After the downturn of 2023, innovation investment showed signs of recovery in 2024 – but the recovery remains fragile; most innovation investments are below the long-term growth trend,” the Index states. 

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.