Casablanca – Morocco climbed three places in the 2026 Global Innovation Index to rank 54th worldwide, marking its highest position since the index was launched.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the latest edition of the index on Tuesday, placing Morocco fourth among lower-middle-income economies and seventh in North Africa and West Asia.
The country has continued to move up the ranking in recent years. Morocco ranked 75th in 2020 before rising to 57th in 2025 and reaching 54th in this year’s edition.
WIPO listed Morocco alongside China, India, Vietnam, Türkiye, the Philippines and Indonesia among economies that have moved rapidly up the innovation rankings over the past decade.
According to the organization, Morocco is driving the innovation momentum in North Africa through a combination of industrial development and the commercial use of intangible assets. These include industrial designs, trademarks, and high-tech activities.
Morocco ranked fifth globally for industrial designs, eighth for intangible asset intensity, 13th for labor productivity growth and 16th for trademarks.
The country also ranked 22nd for the stability of business-oriented public policies, 23rd for the share of graduates in science and engineering fields and 28th for high-tech manufacturing output.
The report said Morocco’s performance reflects a gradual shift toward activities that rely more heavily on technology and intangible capital, alongside efforts to increase the added value of production.
Morocco ranked 76th for innovation inputs, which cover the resources, investments and conditions that support innovation. It ranked 46th for innovation outputs, which measure results in knowledge, technology and creative activities.
The gap between the two rankings indicates that Morocco is converting resources allocated to innovation into tangible results at a higher level of efficiency.
WIPO said the progress of emerging economies in the index is also linked to their ability to connect national expertise with international markets through global value chains, trade in high-tech goods and services, digital services, design, trademarks, intellectual property and startup activity.
The report called for further expansion of research capacity, stronger research and development within companies and closer links between science and industry. It also recommended increasing national knowledge production and strengthening cooperation between universities and businesses.
WIPO further pointed to the need for more private-sector research and development and improved access to financing for startups and scale-ups, particularly venture capital.
The Global Innovation Index ranks 139 economies using 79 indicators covering innovation inputs and outputs. The indicators include institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market and business sophistication, and knowledge, technology and creative outputs.
