Mauritius has ranked 55th out of 133 countries in the Global Innovation Index Edition 2024. The ranking last year was 57th out of 132 countries. The input rank is 40 similar to 2023, while the output rank has decreased by 7 positions (72nd in 2023 and 79th in 2024).

 

Mauritius retains its first place in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main innovation strengths recorded for Mauritius in GII report 2024 are Operational stability for businesses, Regulatory quality, Government funding/pupil, secondary, % GDP/cap, GDP/unit of energy use, Venture capital (VC) investors, deals/bn PPP$ GDP, VC received, value, % GDP, Applied tariff rate, weighted avg., %, Patent families/bn PPP$ GDP, ICT services imports, % total trade, PCT patents by origin/bn PPP$ GDP. The indicator ‘cost of redundancy dismissal’ which was recorded as a strength last year no longer features on the GII profile used by WIPO.

 

The main innovation weaknesses recorded for Mauritius include Global corporate R&D investors, top 3, mn, US $, QS University ranking, Logistics performance, Domestic market scale, bn PPP$, GERD performed by business, % GDP, GERD financed by business, Patents by origin, Unicorn Valuation, % GDP, High-tech manufacturing and Global Brand Value , Top 5000, % GDP. There were 10 recorded weaknesses for Mauritius both in 2023 and 2024.

 

It is noted that 5 out of the 7 pillars have gone down in rankings:

 

1. Institutions from 26th to 33rd

2. Human capital and research from 64th to 69th

3. Infrastructure from 74th to 87th

4. Knowledge and technology outputs from 90th and 91st

5. Creative outputs from 57th and 62nd

 

The ranking for the pillar market sophistication has remained stable (Rank 24th in 2023 and 2024). The pillar business sophistication has progressed from rank 91st to 69th in 2024. In this pillar, a new sub indicator ‘’public research-Industry co-publications’’ has been introduced where Mauritius ranks 31st. Though not a strength, this has contributed to improving the performance of Mauritius in innovation linkages and consequently in business sophistication.

 

Though there has been no improvement in the knowledge and technology outputs pillar, Mauritius has appeared for the first time in the’’PCT patents by origin’’ where it ranked 23rd and this was recorded as a strength. This is attributed to the proclamation of the Industrial Property Act 2019.

 

It appears that there are various multi-institutional measures which contributed to the performance of Mauritius in a positive way. These include:

 

• Intellectual Property law (Industrial Property Act 2019)

• Higher Education Commission Research Funding schemes (Inter-disciplinary/Inter-institutional Team-Based Research, Research Publication Incentive Scheme is also promising in this direction)

• University of Mauritius Poles of Research Excellence and the Biomaterial, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology Unit of the Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research

• Efforts made by the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council to address data gaps.​

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By Dr. Madhvee Madhou