Philippine ranks 3rd in intangible investment growth – WIPO

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines ranked as the world’s third fastest-growing economy for intangible investments, according to a report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026 published by the WIPO in collaboration with the Luiss Business School, showed that the Philippines posted a 4.6-percent growth in intangible investment from 2021 to 2022.

India topped the list with a 7.9-percent growth rate, followed by Japan with a 4.8- percent expansion.

This is the first time that the Philippines was included in the report. 

This year’s report covered 29 economies. 

From 2012 to 2022, the Philippines’ real intangible investments grew at a compound annual growth rate of 3.9 percent, above the global average of 3.5 percent.

The Philippines generated $49.1 billion in intangible investments in 2022.

Intangible assets include organizational knowledge, research and development (R&D), software and data, brands, design and other intellectual property.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) director general Teodoro Pascua said that the findings come at a pivotal moment as the Philippines is starting a new chapter as an upper-middle income economy.

He said the challenge now is how to strengthen knowledge-based assets for long-term competitiveness.

“The experience of advanced economies shows that sustained investments in knowledge, technology and IP become the strongest drivers of productivity and growth. As the Philippines enters upper-middle income status, our rapid gains in R&D, software and brands show that we are paving the way toward that future and that we must reinforce the foundations through innovation-enabling IP policies and programs,” he said.

Marco Alemán, WIPO assistant director general for the IP and Innovation Ecosystems Sector, emphasized IP’s fundamental role in enabling businesses and economies to capture the value of intangible assets.

“These are precisely the assets that intellectual property protects and turns into value, and the report brings various forms of measured and unmeasured intangible assets into view for policymakers and businesses, featuring countries of different levels of development,” he said.