PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has made strides at the global stage in the innovation and health sectors despite overwhelmed with efforts to stem Covid-19 when the pandemic was at its peak in the country last year.

Apart from improving its ranking in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020, which saw the country jumping two spots from number 35 to 33 out of 131 countries, Malaysia also ranked eighth in Asia in the same index according to a report released by top business graduate school – INSEAD (originally known as the Institut European d'Administration des Affaires) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).