“You cannot build an innovation economy on a foundation you are not funding.”
Among the more sobering numbers in WIPO's Global Innovation Index 2026: Pakistan's expenditure on education sits at just 1.9% of GDP, ranking 128th out of roughly 140 economies — near the very bottom of the global table.
Gross expenditure on R&D fares little better, at just 0.2% of GDP, ranking 93rd globally. School life expectancy sits at 8.2 years (116th), and tertiary enrolment at under 11% (114th).
These aren't abstract statistics. They are the input side of the same innovation pipeline that is, remarkably, still producing a top-10 global ranking in mobile app creation and a top-20 ranking in high-tech imports.
Pakistan's innovators are succeeding despite the system, not because of it — an impressive and slightly alarming thing to be true at the same time.
Every conversation about Pakistan's innovation potential has to start here — not with incentive schemes or IP reform alone, but with the basic question of what's actually being funded.
Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Global Innovation Index 2026 — Pakistan Economy Profile