As reported delegation of Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan is attending at the 59th series of meetings of Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Agency (WIPO) in Geneva. Within frame of indicated event member of Board of Agency Mr. Sanan Tapdigov met Mr. Sacha Wunsch-Vincent – Senior economic officer of Economics and Statistics Division of WIPO.

Mr. Tapdigov spoke about the wide-ranging reforms program implemented by the country's authorities to create a stable and competitive national economy, and that these reforms have real benefits, and that they are systematically focused on the long-term perspective.

Speaking about the steps taken to improve the business environment in the country, the official of Agency said that as a result, negative impact on business development are eliminated. Administrative factors are minimized to the extent that they provide effective governance and are consistently applied through economic regulatory mechanisms, including a simpler and more transparent tax policy. According to S. Tapdigov, the results of this policy are reflected in international ratings.

At the same time, he said, it is sometimes surprising that such rating schemes are based on evaluation methodologies, based on which sources, criteria and indicators. In this regard, S.Tapdigov focused on the “Global Innovation Index 2019” published this year. Thus, the report does not fully reflect the realities of Azerbaijan, and it is obvious that some of the indexes are in sharp contrast.

In turn, S. Wunsch-Vincent highly appreciated Azerbaijan's attentive attitude to this report and noted the importance of cooperation in obtaining the right information in the preparation of the next report. He first suggested holding a video conference with representatives of Azerbaijan's innovative development institutions and then organizing a roundtable on this topic in Baku.

The sides exchanged views on other interested issues that may stimulate the development of innovation.

It must be noted that the Global Innovation Index is prepared by the WIPO, Cornell University of the USA and INSEAD Business School and provides ranking of 130 countries based on various indicators.