The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia that registered the fastest growth in terms of intangible investments since 2008, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026, which WIPO released Wednesday, cited the rise of intangible assets in several countries, with the Philippines rising by 4.6 percent on an annual basis based on data from 2021-22.

The Philippines, which sees its debut in the report, came in third after India’s 7.9 percent growth and Japan’s 4.8 percent growth.

The report said India, Japan and the Philippines are economies that traditionally have placed funds mostly in tangible investments, with the share in the Philippines rising from around 21 percent in 2021 to around 25 percent in 2022.

It said the growth of software and databases, organizational capital and brands leads the growth in intangible asset types among the sample economies.

However, growth of design investments in the Philippines, India and Brazil is on a “modest” level, ranging from 2.5-2.7 percent annually, it said.

“In the Philippines, R&D and software and databases account for only around 15 percent of total intangible investments, yet they are the two fastest-growing categories by a considerable margin: between 2021 and 2022, R&D investment grew more than sixfold in real terms. Software and database investment grew more than fivefold over the same period,” it said.

It identified other intangible investments for the Philippines as brands (4 percent growth annually), design (2.7 percent) and organizational capital (1.4 percent).

“A low starting base partly explains these growth rates, but their scale and persistence over a full decade suggest more than a statistical artifact,” it added.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines Director General Teodoro Pascua, in his speech during the 68th Series of Meetings of WIPO General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, which was also streamed online, underscored the need for policies and programs that ensure growth of intellectual property (IP) against the faster pace of innovations.

He said inclusion of the Philippines in the World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026 “reflects our country’s growing recognition of an economy that increasingly creates value through knowledge, innovation, creativity, and other intangible assets.”

“The experience of advanced economies show that sustained investments in knowledge and technology, as well as IP, become the strong drivers or strongest drivers of productivity and growth. As the Philippines enters upper middle income status, our rapid gains in research and development, software, and brands, show that we are paving the way toward the future and that we must reinforce the foundations through innovation enabled IP policies and programs,” he said.

Pascua noted that “beyond numbers, the significance of the report lies in its contribution to evidence-based policy-making.”

He said that “by providing a clearer picture, based on assets’ contribution to economic development, the report equips us with much-needed valuable insights for designing more targeted and effective programs.”

“For the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, these findings reinforce our commitment to fostering an environment where innovation and creativity can flourish. They also provide an important benchmark as we continue working with government agencies, industry partners, and academic institutions,” he added. (PNA)