Khaberni - Written by: Osama Musa Al-Baytar
Lawyer and researcher in innovation policies and intellectual property
The 2025 Global Innovation Index report showed Jordan's progress from rank (73) to rank (65) globally, an advancement that is credited to institutional work and reflects a growing interest in the innovation agenda within public policies. Furthermore, the Cabinet's approval of the final version of the amended improvement plan for the kingdom's performance in this index confirms that innovation is no longer a marginal issue, but has become part of the economic and strategic thinking of the state.
However, the most important question does not start with the rank... but what follows it: Does this progress translate into a real innovation system, or does it remain just a positive number in an annual report?
What does the index actually measure?
The Global Innovation Index (GII) is issued annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), measuring innovation in more than 130 economies through a composite system that includes education, research and development, infrastructure, policies, knowledge outputs, and economic impact.
Herein lies the crux: The index does not reward the multitude of laws or the number of initiatives alone, but the society’s overall ability to generate knowledge, protect it, and transform it into sustainable economic and social value. Meaning that innovation, at its core, is a human act before being a technical procedure.
Innovation manifests in clusters
An examination of the index results reveals that innovation does not grow in a vacuum, but practically manifests in innovation clusters—cities and regions that succeed in amalgamating human capital, universities, companies, financing, and intellectual property protection mechanisms within a single system.
The most active clusters globally—such as Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou and Tokyo–Yokohama—collectively account for nearly one-fifth of the international patent applications (PCT) filed globally. In contrast, clusters like San Jose–San Francisco and Cambridge and Oxford show that innovation density relative to population may be more important than absolute size.
A map of the top 100 innovative clusters shows that innovation is concentrated in three main regions: North America, Europe, and Asia, with China leading the number of clusters, followed by the United States, then Germany, India, and the United Kingdom. More importantly, cities that have recently joined the ranking—such as Dublin, Hamburg, Manchester, and Mexico City—confirm that building an innovative cluster is no longer exclusive to traditional capitals, but a product of conscious policies and effective training and knowledge protection environments.
Where do we stand?
In the Jordanian context, progress in the index takes on greater significance if it leads to a practical question:
Do we aspire only to improve our national ranking, or to build innovative clusters within our cities capable of attracting research, investment, and intellectual property protection?
Global experiences clearly state... there is no sustainable innovation without applied education, no value to an idea without protection, and no protection without awareness and execution skills.
Intellectual property: An often overlooked link
We have legislation, and we have initiatives, but the widest gap remains in culture and capabilities.
Does the researcher know how to protect his output? Does the entrepreneur have the tools to manage innovation in the digital market? And are we still treating intellectual property as a legal file, or as an economic asset capable of exploitation and growth?
In the digital economy, protection is no longer merely a matter of texts, but execution mechanisms and technical knowledge.
Global digital platform models, such as Alibaba Group, show that intellectual property protection has become more than a purely legal affair, but a technical system that allows rapid reporting, tracking violations, and removing them effectively. This reaffirms that building capacities and skills in managing digital intellectual property has become a fundamental condition for transforming rights from texts to a real economic impact.
From the improvement plan to an integrated environment
The improvement plan for the kingdom's performance in the global innovation index is a necessary and appreciated step, especially with its connection to the vision of economic modernization and the follow-up by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship. However, its success depends on the breadth of the partnership:
The state sets policies, and the private sector innovates and invests.
But who builds the awareness and capabilities, and creates the bridge between the idea and the application?
Here emerges the crucial role of specialized civil society platforms and training academies, in building capabilities, spreading culture, and linking innovation to humans, behavior, and responsibility. The indicators improve when daily practices change, not just headlines.
Ranking is just the beginning
Advancing in the Global Innovation Index is an achievement deserving appreciation, but it is not the end of the road—real success begins when we move from improving the rank to building impact—from policies to systems, from initiatives to clusters, and from laws to culture and capabilities.
Innovation does not take root by a decision or index alone, but when policies are transformed into social knowledge, and human capacities capable of transforming the national vision into a sustainable impact are built.
