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March 20, 2006
Innovation: "Made in China"
We've been sounding the alarm bells on this one for awhile: China is really stepping up its emphasis on innovation, unveiling further details of its plans to boost spending on science and technology by 20% this year. Without a doubt, the Chinese government is making it a top priority to enhance the country's innovation capability, seeking in the process to overcome the stigma of the "Made in China" label. Innovation is more than just a slogan - it's a path to economic prosperity and growth for Chinese manufacturers: "A Chinese DVD player exporter can make only 1 dollar from each machine priced at 32 dollars, while 20 dollars goes to the foreign patent owners. That's 60 percent of the total value. And according to the Minister of Commerce, Bo Xilai, China must export 100 million shoes or 800 million shirts in exchange for the value of one Boeing aircraft."
At a recent seminar in Beijing, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz expained the significance of China's new innovation strategy:
"The 11th Five Year plan makes an important step forward. It's a major change, that is, it seeks to establish a basis of what it calls independent innovation. In the past, China has been basically borrowing ideas, trying to close the gap. What it recognizes that enormous amount of the rents that exist in the world associate with knowledge rents, the returns to the control of knowledge. So if China's income is going to be raised, it has to create a basis of independent innovation."
Tags: China innovation JosephStiglitz
[image: "Man Overboard" by hornbuckle]
Posted by dominic at March 20, 2006 6:28 AM | Recommend this! | +dlc | +dig
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