Despite the hype surrounding the state digitisation programme, Russia fell to 27th place in the global innovative rankings produced by Bloomberg, but was still the third best in Emerging Europe, Bloomberg reported on January 22.

Russia is now on a par with Malaysia and Luxembourg. Last year, Russia was two positions higher.

The top slot was once again taken by South Korea, the six-time champion of the rating. Germany is in second place after rising two places. The rest of the top ten was, in order, Finland (+4 positions), followed by Switzerland (+1), Israel (+5), Singapore (-3), Sweden (-5), the US (+3), Japan (-3), and France (-1). China has risen three places, but is still not among the ten most advanced countries, ranking 16th. 

From the New Europe region there were some surprises. The highest placed New Europe market was Poland in 22nd place, down one place y/y. Poland which was strongest on Productivity with a score of 40 that was almost twice as high as its peers at the top of the ranking. It was also strong on research concentration and R&D intensity.

Czechia also did well (25th place), and was strongest in high-tech density. Compared to its peers Russia did exceptionally well, in third place amongst the New Europe economies. Russia’s strengths were productivity (score: 51), which is more than twice as good as almost all the countries in the top 10, and manufacturing value added. Moreover, Russia was well ahead of Estonia (36th place), which has been a poster boy for digitisation thanks to its embrace of all things tech in the last two decades.