Unleashing the power of innovation
Updated: 2014-07-07 07:47
By ANDREW MOODY (China Daily)
|
||||||||
Engineers work at Bell Labs in Shanghai. Many multinational companies have set up their R&D centers in China.CHINA DAILY |
China's achievements in R&D came under the spotlight at the China Innovation Research Findings Conference held at the CEIBS campus in Shanghai in May.
Attended by R&D heads from some of the leading multinationals in China such as AkzoNobel NV, Robert Bosch GmbH, DSM NV, Royal Philips NV and Royal Dutch Shell Plc as well as Chinese companies, it presented the findings of the work of the business school's Centre on China Innovation, set up three years ago.
George Yip, professor of management and co-director of the center, believes China is on the brink of major technological breakthroughs.
|
|
"I think the next few years are going to see a dramatic take off."
Yip, former dean of the Rotterdam School of Management and co-author of Strategic Transformation: Changing While Winning, says one of the key breakthroughs has been in aerospace technology.
COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) is to launch its first commercial airliner, the C919, to rival The Boeing Co and Airbus SAS, in 2016.
"It is leading-edge technology and almost no other country in the world can do this outside the United States and Europe. It will sell very large volumes in China and from there to the rest of the world."
Bruce McKern, former co-director of the center and now visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, says the Chinese have built a strong research base from essentially copying technology.
"They started to learn how to innovate by copying. They then improved on the copying with their own innovations. As a result they have become good at incremental innovation," he says.
The Australian academic says this type of incremental innovation is now vital for the current stage of China's economic development, where production has to become more efficient to absorb higher labor costs.
"A richer society that has higher labor costs has to innovate because it has to find a way of producing things more efficiently," he says.
- Beijing, Berlin getting closer despite geographical distance
- Ukrainian troops take over Sloviansk from militants
- Egypt court sentences Muslim Brotherhood leader to life in prison
- Russia, Ukraine agree to 3-way talks with rebels
- Confessions of Japanese war criminals online
- Iraqi Kurds seek independence
- Chinese-American police officers rise in NYPD
- Visitors tour Chinese warships
- Gettysburg reenactment marks 151st anniversary
- Washington splashed with fireworks
- Out and about
- China's Cultural Minister visits California
- Spotlight on Chinese culture at DC Folklife Festival
- Independence Day parade held in Washington D.C.
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
China helps fight international war on drugs |
Crackdown on terrorist attacks |
My China Story: Meeting the master |
Tongues tied around tatu-bola |
A market that's not such a hot property |
Tough regime cranks out test winners |
Today's Top News
Beijing, Berlin getting closer despite distance
Arthur hits eastern Canada, causes power outages
Shark bites man near Southern California beach
Obama: US always has been a nation of immigrants
Anti-corruption probes increase sharply in 2014
Facebook leases office in Beijing
3 confirmed dead in Florida boat collision
ROK FTA expected this year
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |