Previous

Page - 5

The far bigger shift, just now picking up steam, is occurring among the products that manufacturers and marketers trade with each other: the infinite number and variety of components that make up everything else that is made, whether it is the hundreds of parts in a washing machine or computer or the hundreds of thousands of parts in an airplane.

The various sectors in which China has had enormous growth in the last 5 years includes mobile-phones, broadband communications, manufacture and sale of integrated chips, biotechnology, semiconductors, software & other information-services and Internet development. Further to be noted are that in the areas in which Chinese firms have newly established themselves, are in partnership with the world's leading technology-driven companies.

7. China is fast closing the research and development gap.

The ability of American industry to stay ahead of its international competition rests on the national gifts and resources that the U.S. devotes to innovation. The research gap between the U.S. and China remains vast. In December 2003, Washington authorized $3.7 billion to finance nanotechnology research, a sum the Chinese government cannot easily match within a scientific infrastructure that would itself take many more billions (and years) to build.

Yet when it comes to more mainstream applied industrial development and innovation, the separation among Chinese, American and other multinational firms is beginning to narrow. In 2003, China spent $60 billion on research and development. The only countries that spent more were the U.S. and Japan, which spent $282 billion and $104 billion respectively.

Foreign companies are moving quickly to integrate their China-based labs into their global research operations. Motorola alone has 19 research labs in China that develop technology for both the local and global markets. Several of the company's most innovative recent phones were developed there for the Chinese market.

Next

* Contributed by -
Syam Krishna V. K. ,
B.Tech. (Prod. Engg.), Kerala University,
MBA 2007, DOMS, IIT Madras.