Innovation is defined as a product, production process, or a new or improved method of organizing or marketing JEDDAH: Spending on innovation in Saudi Arabia’s private sector totaled more than SR64 billion ($17.5 billion) in 2018, a wide-ranging government survey revealed. The Institutional Innovation Survey 2018, released by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) on Monday, also showed that spending on innovation reached 2.74 percent of the total expenditure in the private sector. Results of the survey were published through GaStat’s website www.stats.gov.sa. The survey also provides data on the size of innovation in enterprises and the local market, identifies the extent to which the market embraces new products, and provides data on the extent to which companies adopt new ideas and innovations. Innovation is defined as a product, production process, or a new or improved method of organizing or marketing.