Up, Up, Up

In a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation that measured advanced nations' capacity for innovation and competitiveness, Mexico placed toward the bottom in the majority of the indices. It was 38th out of 40 overall, one spot in behind Brazil and one in front of India. Of all the individual categories --ranging from corporate tax levels to the quality of higher education to the amount of dollars spent on research and development-- Mexico's best score was 23rd, in foreign direct investment.

However, though this is clearly not a cause for celebration, there is a silver lining. Mexicans should be pleased that Mexico was even included at all. Being measured against Finland and the US and Japan stacked the deck against Mexico, but other mid-level regional powers (South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Nigeria, among others) would love to have been on the list. Moreover, the measures of improvement since the late 1990s offer a lot of optimistic pieces of data. Mexico ranked third thanks to a 20 percent leap in IT investments from 1999 to 2006; its improvements in higher education were the second most significant; the nation's rises in science publications and corporate spending on research and development both ranked sixth; its business climate and broadband access also landed in the top ten. This list proves that Mexico is out of its depth when compared to China, the US, and Western Europe, but we already knew that. Less expected but more welcome are the indications that, in certain areas, Mexico is bounding in the right direction.