China Tops World in Patent Applications
The Economist is right; the simple fact that China has surpassed the US in number of patent applications, it does not necessarily attest to the quality of those applications. China has a long way to go in truly path breaking innovation.
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CAS: China to Overtake US by 2019
Most predictions of when China overtakes the US in terms of gross GDP are produced by Western and multilateral institutions. This one, the Nation’s Health Report, however, is by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) which is usually hesitant about making such projections. Perhaps a bit optimistic. More likely early to mid 2020s.
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CHINA will overtake the United States economically within six years and go on to become the world’s most important country in three decades more, an official research institute predicts.
The findings came from the Nation’s Health Report issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Global Times said, without giving details of the criteria used for the prediction.
China’s economy would be larger than that of the US by 2019, it cited the document as saying, and China’s “international status” would exceed that of the US by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.
“National health” was defined as a country’s “overall conditions … using resource sufficiency and wealth distribution as the major criteria”, the Global Times said, but did not go into specifics.
China ranked as the 11th “healthiest” country out of some 100 nations, it said, just behind Costa Rica, with Sweden in top position.
The official Xinhua news agency said China was given a national health status of “up to standard”, though the US, Japan and Britain were deemed “health deficient”.
– news.com.au
Standoff at Southern Weekly Resolved
Communist Party-backed management and rebellious staff at an influential weekly newspaper stepped back Wednesday from a contentious standoff over censorship that spilled over to the wider public and turned into an unexpected test of the new Chinese leadership’s tolerance for political reform.
Hopes among supporters of the Southern Weekly that the dispute would strike a blow against censorship appeared to fizzle with a tentative resolution. Under an agreement reached Tuesday, editors and reporters at the Southern Weekly will not be punished for protesting and stopping work in anger over a propaganda official’s heavy-handed rewriting of a New Year’s editorial last week, according to two members of the editorial staff. One, an editor, said propaganda officials will no longer directly censor content prior to publication, though other longstanding controls remain in place.
“If that’s the case, we’ve got a small victory for the media,” said David Bandurksi, an expert on Chinese media at Hong Kong University. The compromise, he said, might see censors back off the “really ham-fisted approach” they had taken in recent months.
– Reuters
Canadian Cleantech and the Chinese Market
In contrast to US clean technology which is “fizzling” according to one newspaper, the Canadian industry is bustling and within a few years could outpace other Canadian high-tech sectors, concluded the 2013 Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report by consultancy Analytica-Advisors. But, for the Canadian industry to keep on surging, its companies must start learning Mandarin and find the right partners to sell in the world’s biggest cleantech market, added an Israeli newspaper.
Globally, the clean technology industry is massive, estimated to be US$1 trillion in 2010. Based on a 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), within a decade the industry is expected to expand three times to $3 trillion. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants suggests the industry could be as large as $5.7 trillion by 2025.
Outpacing global growth rates, the Canadian industry grew by 19% CAGR from 2008 to 2010 to top $9 billion. Currently, about 700 technology SMEs across Canada employ more than 44,400 people with jobs growing at 8% a year. Moreover, Canadian clean technology companies are export-oriented, deriving 53% of their revenues from world markets, well above Canadian averages. Canadian companies also invest heavily in innovation, plowing nearly $1 billion into R & D. This compares very favourably with established industries such as oil and gas ($760 million) and pharmaceuticals ($649 million).
Celine Bak, President of Analytica-Advisors, cited in a news.thomasnet.com article, has said that given current growth rates, Canadian cleantech including bio-energy, wastewater, and energy efficiency “will become a $26 billion industry in the next five years, employing over 100,000”. By comparison, the Montreal Gazette reported the Canadian aerospace industry lead by Bombardier experienced a slump in 2012 that will drive revenues down to below $15 billion. With improved outlooks for 2005 and beyond, industry sales should rebound and reach $18.5 billion by 2017.
The Harretz newspaper says Western cleantech companies are spending big bucks to develop ties with Chinese governments for a foothold in the enormous and quickly expanding market. “The (Chinese) government invests no less than $9 billion per month in renewable energy and is expected to become the world’s largest solar panel and wind energy market by 2016. Altogether, 50% of today’s investments in green energy are made outside of the US and Europe”.
In fact, the central government has just unveiled major plans for renewable energy installations in 2013 that already renders Harretz’s forecast inaccurate. A statement on the website of the National Energy Development Reform Commission (NEDRC), a division of China’s chief planning agency the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC), announced the country will add 49 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity this year, involving 21 gigawatts of hydro, 10 gigawatts of solar, and 18 gigawatts of wind.
The announcement also exceeds other Western press forecasts for Chinese wind and solar installations. A November report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, for instance, projected China would add only 5.39 gigawatts of photovoltaic panels this year, although that alone would have pushed China past Germany as the largest solar market. Bloomberg was also short in its prediction of 16.3 gigawatts for new land-based wind capacity.
Thus, for Canadian cleantech companies, China is THE market to focus on over the long haul.
Scotiabank Still Waiting for Approval of Bank of Guangzhou Share Buy
It’s been over a year and no word yet. If the tables were turned, Chinese companies would be complaining even louder. The Chinese authorities should make a decision soon lest a Canadian backlash on investment reciprocity issues.
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Scotiabank’s patience is apparently wearing thin over delays by Chinese authorities in approving a planned $719-million investment in a bank in a fast-growing region of China.
Canada’s most international bank (TSX:BNS.TO – News) wants to acquire just under 20 per cent of the Bank of Guangzhou, the maximum stake allowed under Chinese law.
However, it has been waiting more than a year for Chinese approval and CEO Rick Waugh says it won’t wait forever to close the deal.
Waugh, speaking at a conference in Toronto, described the proposed investment as a very intriguing opportunity that the bank has been focused on for a year, and for which it raised the required capital.
However, he says there are a “world of opportunities” for the bank and that it will find another place for the investment if it has to.
In 2011, Scotiabank announced it had been chosen as the winning bidder to acquire a 19.99 per cent of the Bank of Guangzhou, a closely held Chinese bank that is primarily government owned.
BGZ operates in a region of southern China with an expanding middle class that has benefited from China’s growing trade with the world. The Chinese bank has a growing retail customer base and also focuses on providing corporate and treasury services to companies in China.
Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, which surrounds Hong Kong, and is home to a large manufacturing base.
– Canadian Press