The future of China’s economy. Results of a recent survey can be found in Insight 5.

China has poured about 1.5 billion yuan (about $197 million) into the research and development of nanoscience and nanotechnology over the past 15 years. The number of patents they have filed for has increased from less than 1,000 in 2001 to more than 4,600 in March 2005. China is not just about manufacturing. China is moving up the value chain as is investing in R&D as a key economic and growth development strategy.

During 2006, the world's three largest spenders of R&D where the United States (US$330 billion) and China (US$136 billion) followed by Japan (US$130 billion). A 2006 study on global R&D by the Battelle Memorial Institute indicated that China has increased R&D spending annually about 17% over a 12-year period, compared to 4% to 5% for Europe and the United States. The key issue may not be just the investment in R&D in Europe as R&D alone does not increase profits. It is also converting the the results of R&D into commercialised patents, start-up, products and services.

The Chinese economy has enjoyed four consecutive years of at least 10% growth. China's economy expanded by 10.7% in 2006. New economic research reveals businesses in Europe and the US are very scared of the impact but ill prepared to act and lag behind their Asian counterparts on ambitions for the China (中華人民共和國) market. Over 700 business leaders, government officials, leading academics and futurists from across 60 countries were polled in the first worldwide survey to gather views and expectations of China’s global impact over the period to 2020.

The survey conducted by business think tanks Global Futures and Foresight (GFF) and Fast Future provides rich insight into how business attitudes and ambitions for the China market are evolving across five continents. The report ‘The Future of China’s Economy, The Path to 2020 – Opportunities, Challenges and Uncertainties’ published on the 22 March 2007 provides a ‘wake up call’ to the Western business world, warning that to thrive in the changing global economy action must be taken now to make China a key element in future business strategies.

Graham Leach, Chief Economist and Director of Policy for the UK Institute of Directors says, “For UK and Western businesses to stay competitive in the global marketplace, China has to be a key component of their strategy. This study highlights very clearly that business leaders in the west now understand the scale and long term potential of China’s economy and they recognise the massive impact China will have in their markets globally. Despite this, many are still unwilling to respond, hesitant in their China strategies or simply unsure of what to do. It is now time to act on these concerns, start learning about the Chinese marketplace, drawing on the experience of those already doing business in China and actively embracing the opportunity that China presents.”

Key findings of the survey can be found in Insight 5....click here to read more...

You may also find interesting the results of a study conducted by Booz Allen's - Smart Spenders: Global Innovation 1000. This study and report highlights a small group of high-leverage innovative firms who out perform the industry. They are able to reduce R&D investment and still innovate more successfully than their competitors. "Money simply cannot buy innovation". Information on the study has been published by Booz Allen in Insight 4 .... to read the article click here.

Shak Gohir
Business & Progamme Manager

Check out the European Stats on Innovation

The changing map of Europe, showing member states and would be member states. The information below was release by the European Commission during January 2007:

• In 2005 the EU27 spent just over 200 billion euro on Research & Development (R&D)

• R&D intensity (i.e. expenditure as a percentage of GDP) in the EU27 stood at 1.84%, the same as in 2004. R&D intensity remained significantly lower in the EU27 than in other major economies. In 2004, R&D expenditure was 2.68% of GDP in the United States, 3.18% in Japan, while it has reached 1.34% in China in 2005.

• R&D expenditure in the EU27 rose by 1.5% in real terms on average per year between 2001 and 2005, compared to 1.7% in the United States and 2.0% in Japan between 2001 and 2004.

• Check out all the states here.
  

Shak Gohir

Using Nanotechnology to Improve Health in Developing Countries

Millions of people die each year in developing countries from diseases that are preventable and treatable. Moreover, tragically little research is done to prevent or cure some of the world’s biggest killers, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

What if doctors in Kenya could equip cells of the retina with photoswitches that can be flipped on, essentially making blind nerve cells see and restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness? What if public health workers in Bangladesh could place contaminated water into transparent bottles, which when placed in direct sunlight could disinfect the water and help prevent water-borne diseases like cholera, dysentery or polio?

What if a medical technician in Vietnam could use a tiny "reporter" molecule that attaches itself to specific bacteria or viruses in a patient sample and read with an inexpensive laser device -- no bigger than a briefcase -- whether an infectious disease is present? What if a nurse in Brazil could dispense a gel that would stick to the AIDS virus surface like molecular Velcro and prevent it from attacking healthy cells in sexually active women?

These scenarios are not science fiction. They are just a few examples of the exciting potential of nanomedicine -- an offshoot of nanotechnology which researchers in both industrialized and developing countries hail as enabling the next big breakthroughs in medicine and which they promise to change virtually every facet of health care, disease control and prevention.

Several of the projects being financed by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s $450 million Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative involve nanotechnology including development of a nanoemulsion-based vaccine delivery system that uses a simple nasal swab rather than an injection.

What is nanotechnology? How is nanotechnology expected to transform medicine and health care in the future? How can nanomedicine help the truly needy in developing countries? And what are the challenges of ensuring that nanotechnology meets the specific health needs of Third World peoples? These questions are the focus of an event and live webcast on Tuesday, February 27th at 12:00 p.m. in the 5th Floor Conference Room of the Woodrow Wilson

International Center for Scholars (www.wilsoncenter.org/directions).

*** Webcast LIVE at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/nano ***

What: Using Nanotechnology to Improve Health Care in Developing Countries
Who: Dr. Andrew Maynard, Chief Science Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies; Dr. Piotr Grodzinski, Director, Nanotechnology for Cancer Programs, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health; Dr. Peter A. Singer, Senior Scientist, McLaughlin Rotman Centre, University Health Network, Professor, University of Toronto, and Distinguished Investigator, Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Dr. Jeff Spieler, Chief of Research, Technology & Utilization, Office of Population & Reproductive Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Moderator.

When: Tuesday, February 27th, 2007, 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. (Lunch available at 11:30 a.m.)

Where: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 5th Floor Conference Room. 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

This event is being organized by the Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Global Health Initiative. The Center's Global Health Initiative provides an important forum to examine critical international health challenges including emerging health technologies and their impact on Third World medical care and economic development.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies was launched in 2005 by the Wilson Center and The Pew Charitable Trusts. It is dedicated to helping business, governments, and the public anticipate and manage the possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.
Media planning to cover the event should contact Sharon McCarter at (202) 691-4016 or sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org.

Organiser: Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Global Health Initiative (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/nano)

Contact details
Sharon McCarter
Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholar
5th Floor Conference Room 1300
Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20004
United States
E-mail: sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org
Tel: 001-202-691-4016

The World's Top Innovators

Globalisation and global challenges has puched innovation to the top of the agenda for governments. In today's global and connected economy countries have to respond to global challenges to ensure that their national and regional economies remain competitive. All economies are interdependent and interconnected.

Innovation is going to the single most important driver in determining any nation's success in the 21st century. Where once competitive organisations made improvements to optimise efficiency, operations and quality, now whole nations must optimise our entire society and economy for innovation.

Simply doing the same as before is no longer an option for governments and companies. Commercial and economic prosperity urgently demands that businesses shift to creating fresh value from new products and services. INSEAD, one of the world's leading business school based in Europe, and World Business have jointly established a Global Innovation Index or GII, ranking counties by their innovation capabilities.

GII is caluculated from combining scores for a nation's Institutions and policies, human capacity, infrastructure, technological sophistication, business markets and capital, knowledge, competitveness and wealth. What the GII ranking shows is that pressure for nations to remain innovative is already changing the our planet. The 20 innovator:

• 1 US 5.80
• 2 Germany 4.89
• 3 UK 4.81
• 4 Japan 4.48
• 5 France 4.32
• 6 Switzerland 4.16
• 7 Singapore 4.10
• 8 Canada 4.06
• 9 Netherlands 3.99
• 10 Hong Kong 3.97
• 11 Denmark 3.95
• 12 Sweden 3.90
• 13 Finland 3.85
• 14 UAE 3.81
• 15 Belgium 3.77
• 16 Luxembourg 3.72
• 17 Australia 3.71
• 18 Israel 3.68
• 19 South Korea 3.67
• 20 Iceland 3.66

The UK is ranked in third place just behind Germany as a global leader. What analysis of the top 100 shows is that developing countries including India, China and African nations are also using technological innovation as a springboard for improving their economies. Since the early 1990s China has boosted R&D invest by 50% and is now aiming to get R&D to a level of 2.5% of its GDP.

Read more....

Shak Gohir
Business & Programme Manager

Plastic Logic Receives $100 Million in Funding

Plastic Logic, announced that it has secured $100 million worth of venture capital, one of the largest deals in European venture capital history.

The funding was co-led by Oak Investment Partners of Palo Alto and Tudor Investment of Greenwich. Plastic Logic intends to use the venture funds to build a manufacturing facility. This is a strategic shift in its business model away from a licensing strategy to manufacturing its own products. The company expects to begin manufacturing standalone flexible active-matrix display units that include connectivity hardware by 2009.

Mr Hauser, Director of Plastic Logic, believes they could achieve $1bn in annual sales within 5-10 years. The company's first products are to be a series of light, tough and flexible display screens the thickness of a credit card. Plastic Logic, based in Cambridge, is to build the factory by the end of next year in Dresden, Germany.

Plastic Logic, which was formed in 2000 previously received $50m investment rounds.

More information on Plastic Logic's website - click here

You can also view Plastic Logic's videos on YouTube - click here


Shak Gohir
Cenamps, Business & Programme Manager