Provocative prod for Singapore

YET another tool to track progress in efforts to foster creativity and innovation in Asian economies was unveiled last week, adding to a host of country-ranking studies that should serve to spur policy analyses and reviews.

The new Creative Productivity Index - developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) - looks at the economic impact of efforts to foster creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation in 22 Asian economies, with the United States and Finland included for comparative purposes. Singapore emerged 8th among its regional neighbours (and 10th overall in the rankings). That Singapore came up behind Japan (the top-placed), Finland, South Korea, the US, Taiwan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia in creativity and innovation would probably not be too much of a surprise. One might note, though, that Singapore was the top-ranked in Asia for innovation in the Global Innovation Index 2014.

What was a huge surprise - indeed, a shock - in the ADB-EIU study was the ranking of Laos one spot in front of Singapore. An EIU analyst's explanation shed a bit of light, even if it raises further questions about the methodology behind the study.