Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation said that Montenegro continues to improve its innovation performance, achieving particularly strong results in business innovation, which positions it among the most dynamic countries in the Western Balkans in this field.

The Ministry said the European Commission had published the latest edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which assesses the innovation performance of EU member states, neighbouring countries and global competitors.

“According to this year’s report, Montenegro ranks as the second best-performing country in the Western Balkans and recorded the strongest year-on-year improvement in innovation performance in the region,” the Ministry said in a press release.

Data availability for Montenegro across the EIS indicators stands at 91 percent, exceeding the minimum threshold and demonstrating a high level of reliability for assessing the country’s innovation performance.

“Montenegro's innovation performance reached 44.7 percent of the EU average this year, representing an increase of 3.2 percentage points since 2019 and a further 2.8 percentage-point improvement over the past year,” the press release reads.

The Ministry highlighted Montenegro’s particularly strong performance in business innovation, where it ranked third among 40 countries, driven by the exceptionally high share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) introducing product innovations, strong collaboration between innovative SMEs and other companies and institutions, and a high level of employment in innovative enterprises.