Riyadh, October 6, 2025 — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosted the regional unveiling of the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 under the theme “2025 and Beyond: Fueling Economic Growth through Innovation.” The event, held at The Garage innovation hub, was co-organized by the Research, Development and Innovation Authority (RDIA) and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP), in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The opening ceremony featured keynote interventions by Dr. Sultan Bin Saeed (RDIA), Dr. Marco M. Alemán, Assistant Director General of WIPO, and Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Swailem (SAIP). Dr. Alemán underlined the region’s remarkable progress, noting that “more than two-thirds of economies in Northern Africa and Western Asia improved their positions in the 2025 GII” and emphasized the growing uptake of the GII as a policy tool, used by over 90 Member States worldwide.
Dr. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, Co-Editor of the GII, presented global findings and regional results, followed by two panel discussions on advancing innovation policy and learning from the world’s long-term innovation climbers.
The discussions highlighted Saudi Arabia’s steady rise – ranking 46th in the GII 2025 – and the region’s shared commitment to transforming economies through science, technology, and human capital investment.
The event underscored that innovation in the region is moving from potential to scale, with collaboration the next frontier.
The Riyadh event forms part of WIPO’s new series of annual regional GII launches, following editions in Brazil (2023) and Kazakhstan (2024), designed to foster dialogue among innovation policymakers and strengthen regional ecosystems.