0.1 Regions and clusters  (Page 14/15)

The emerging brics

Europe, Japan and the USA have dominated the ‘knowledge economy landscape’ for a generation. However the world is changing and economies known as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are becoming significant players. Other countries are following close on their coat tails for example Mexico and Vietnam, which is now the fastest growing economy in the world (Milken Conference 2010). This is not to mention established actors in the knowledge economy drama such as Singapore that has made a conscious effort to identify the key sectors and invest to attract the best. The Biopolis project in Singapore is an example of a sovereign state deliberately and strategically seeking to build a cluster using the immense resource at its disposal to seek sustainable competitive advantage.

Taking China as an example, for a generation or more China has sent its best young talent overseas to receive the best education in the universities of the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. The Chinese government has focussed this strategy largely on the STEM subjects and a large percentage of UK STEM postgraduates are students form China and India. The time has now come for China to reverse this trend, it is now has the economic wealth to create opportunity for this knowledge based human capital back home in China. Couple with this the fact that China is no longer seen, by global corporate executives, as an IP risk, indeed the opposite. Chris Viehbacher CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Sonofi-Aventis recently said that ‘I no longer worry about IP; I will take my research to the region which offers me the best talent and best service. China now plays by the rules’ (Milken Global Conference 2010).

The financial crisis of 2008-2010

The issues of the participation of emerging nations in the global knowledge economy are made the more real and pertinent by the recent global financial crisis. The 2008-2010 crisis is different form others in recent history, this time it is emerging economies that leading the world out of recession. China has led the way followed by others of the ‘BRIC’ category. The US’ emergence from recession followed some two quarters later and Europe lagged significantly further behind. The crisis in Greece has made it harder for Europe to regain economic momentum and as of Q2 2010 fears remain for the Spanish, Irish, Portuguese and even British economies. At this critical time therefore China and others BRICs are able to invest in the emerging knowledge economies and in particular in the human capital. These nations are climbing rapidly up the league tables. Their scientific citations are improving and the rate of generation of new IP is surpassing that of the established dominant players.