The Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2015 was released last week and Kuwait surprisingly (at least to me) ranked last compared to neighboring GCC states. The GII ranked the innovative performance of 141 countries and economies around the world, based on 79 indicators and Kuwait ended up coming in 77th place in the rankings.
43 – Saudi Arabia
47 – United Arab Emirates
50 – Qatar
59 – Bahrain
69 – Oman
77 – Kuwait
I downloaded the full report to better understand why Kuwait came last in the GCC and so low worldwide and found a few positives and negatives which I’ve highlighted below.
Positives:
Electricity output, kWh/cap (Rank 1)
Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary (Rank 8)
Ease of paying taxes (Rank 11)
Negatives:
Business sophistication (Rank 132)
Knowledge absorption (Rank 130)
Cost of redundancy dismissal, salary week (Rank 124)
Ease of starting a business (Rank 120)
Check out the full report on the GII website [Here]
Thanks Musaed
27 replies on “Kuwait Lacking Innovation”
here we go again
The problem is that Kuwaitis dismiss such articles as unfair “Kuwait Bashing” instead of a wake-up call to improve.
So cupcakes are not that innovative?
You know measurements in and of themselves are problematic- especially composite indicators. Assigning quantitative measures to things like human action and character isn’t the best, and then using a ranking system for comparative analysis is its own monster (there are other variations that make countries different, and comparing one to the other doesn’t necessarily mean one is better than the other, just different).
I wouldnt be surprised if the low ranking was attributed to a lack of available data (and whether kuwait submitted it and if so, how reliable it was). In order for an accurate measurement of kuwait to begin, you have to have someone IN Kuwait working on this. Also basing something as complex as “innovation” off income, region and efficiency (whatever that is and however that was measured) isn’t really ideal. It appears there are other indicators (81 in total) but those are specially highlighted.
saudi arabia is the first in innovation?? HAHA what a joke. obviously whoever made this index doesn’t know shit about the region.
Its actually not a joke, Saudi has created the best schools in the region. World Economic Forum and World Bank have similar indexes, you will be surprised.
Keep laughing buddy, the whole world is laughing too (but not with you).
if the whole world is laughing then they are laughing at savage nations ruled by theocratic regimes ( Iran & SA )
just recently a boy got crucified in SA, what an innovative and progressive country, i’m so jelly we don’t have crucifixion here in kuwait.
You have to understand that Individuals =/= Governments. Also the majority =/= everyone. Some Saudi Arabians are trying their best and are actually innovative. In contrast, We here are oppressed and blocked from getting help and the necessary ease of steps to innovate.
I’m pretty sure there are wonderful innovate saudis such as telfaz11 and AAjeddah to name a few, i just thought that it was a stretch to call it “leading in innovation” i would have chose qatar or uae, hell i would have definitely say qatar with the MIA & mathaf.
qatar and uae support local creative communities while lacking ones, while in kuwait and saudi there’s a giant creative powerhouse with tons of entrepreneurs from Q8 and KSA and yet our governments don’t support them which is sad…
Pupil teacher ratio is high do to overstaffing, it is a good indicator in other countries but not in rentier states like Kuwait.
Well anything done in Kuwait famously has Kuwaiti names attached to it, with little or no effort or innovation actually expended by the Kuwaitis.
I can give you so many instances but for a start, here’s two.
“Tokai” the documentary about street cleaners.
“The 99”
How do I know this? I know the people who were really behind these programs – and Kuwaitis just signed their names to it as innovators. Granted maybe a part of each was Kuwaiti – like the IDEA for the 99… but. Well. There ya go
I use energy
I remember my teacher, i like him
I don’t pay tax
I am sphisticzted
I know some stuff
Yes, three months holiday
I have many business
Repressive societies are generally not innovative ones.
Innovation? I’ve yet to see a decent public library in Kuwait.
I blame the youth of this country, they simply like to enjoy their time and show no botheration to the development of this country. They are happy that they get all the required , whether from within or outside. I wish this country would race over all the other GCC ones and be one day the place to be in.
Blame the ones who couldn’t be bothered to raise their own kids. Why should a third-world Nanny care how the kid ultimately turns out?
I disagree. There are lots of young, motivated people that are very discouraged because they study abroad for years and come back to a place that wants to just shove them in a useless ministry position where they clock out at 2.
@ 2, you must be kidding right!? It is more like 12 or 1…….
Amen to this comment. We have shit-tier education and we’re being manufactured to work in government places and do the mundane/jaded job of sitting somewhere for about 6 hours. Unless you’re into football, making cupcakes or being a “fashionista”, you’ll receive 0% support and ridicule depending on what you want to do.
Mark why do you always pretend to be surprised when something negative (and correct) about Kuwait comes out? I’m sure people can see through the brown-nosing.
It’s not brown nosing, I don’t need to brown nose anyone cuz I don’t care.
I’ve always told people Kuwaitis were the most innovative in the GCC so this was a surprise. But I think I mistook a lot of entrepreneurship for innovation which obviously is where the fault lies.
One of the reasons Kuwait lacks innovation is because citizens are very well taken care of; there is no need to be innovative to receive a decent wage and standard of living. This phenomenon is known as the resource curse, or to us the oil curse. Of-course the other factors mentioned above do play a role, but simply put when I (a Kuwaiti) get a job in the public domain, I’m not really expected to do much, maybe theres a very low quota I must meet but thats about it.
Resource Curse as defined by Sachs, Jeffrey D and Warner, Andrew M;
“The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, specifically point-source non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.”
Right, Sachs… the same guy who believes in the Millennium Development Goals, that you can end global poverty, and aid does more harm than good (which granted, i agree with to a degree but he lives in the clouds).
The “resource curse” may hinder development but development doesn’t rely on that alone, nor should it be an excuse for the lack thereof. Mind you when they talk abut the resource curse they’re arguing that rather than making people in a country richer, it makes the people poorer, the likelihood of war increases, and the opportunity for democracy decreases. Conflict is a lot of what they deal/work within as a framework if you’ve read any of their other work and so trying to find applicability to Kuwait is difficult based off their theories.
Not to mention that their research focused on looking at resources and GDP in a bunch of countries over time. GDP itself is not a solid indicator of how well a country is doing (it doesnt take into consideration income disparity for example among other things). Also just because you show that there is correlation between two things, doesn’t mean that its a causal relationship. I’m not saying they’re wrong, just that you have to be weary of theories and their applicability to Kuwait.
I also dont think that the issue is a low quote or not great expectations when working in the public sector, but that the systems in place don’t help account for any sort of innovation. Just like with corruption, its not the individual, its the system and if you make that more efficient, transparent, impose accountability, etc. then you can start heading in the right direction. (I suggest you google and read “Corrupt Cities. A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention by Robert Klitgaard” if you’re interested in learning more about this, its a brilliant “guidebook” (in a sense) of how a city in Bolivia was able to reduce corruption and Hong Kong is thrown into the mix too).
Sorry about the lengthy response but my current Masters program focuses highly on international development (and throughout my studies i’ve been trying to figure out where Kuwait fits in it all) so i’ve entertained and know a lot about the big time figures the world bank, IMF, USAID, etc. basically worship (and the critiques that come with them).
In our field you can find correlations almost everywhere you look. No need for an apology whatsoever. Your points are valid however sometimes it is necessary to live in the clouds to get things accomplished, taking the MDG for example; we are better off than we were in the year 2000, perhaps not as much as we wish but some progress is better than none.
I will most definitely check out the book!
Good luck with your studies and I wish you the very best.
Nothing surprising about the report. I’m surprised you were surprised!
Well even the 99 is a complete rip off. It’s just a really crap version of the Xmen. And anyways most of the people who ACTUALLy worked on it were not Kuwaiti. He was too busy trying to make himself famous for ideas he didnt have