China and Innovation – Now Overtaking Japan
Posted on July 28, 2011 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization, InnovationIt’s not that long ago that a colleague told me that innovation would come out of China two generations hence. I did not believe him after seeing a little of what China was doing first hand.
Interesting to read this article today in the Start Advertiser:
As a result, China is expected to overtake Japan soon as the world’s second-largest R&D investor, although it still remains far behind the U.S. China’s domestic doctorate awards in science and engineering have also increased more than tenfold since the early 1990s, and its share of the global pool of researchers has grown from less than 14 percent in 2002 to more than 20 percent today.
Only a few years ago, China’s approach to innovation hardly played a role in international economic diplomacy. Today, it is a hot topic in U.S.-China economic relations, adding further to contentious disputes about exchange rates, trade and foreign direct investment.
The article continues:
Rather than fearing China, we need to focus our research and policy debates constructively on how this relationship can be improved.
I could not agree more. The entire article can be found here.
And now this in the Harvard Business Review Blog on August 4 for another perspective.
Scott Ward says:
Post Author August 1, 2011 at 1:50 pmI also like the articles comment about innovation leading to less regulation, away from the traditional centralised power-model found in China. A culture of innovation only occurs when knowledge is shared and people are empowered to make decisions… it seems that China of the last 50 years could now possibly innovate its way into becoming a less authoritarian government