China to be Biggest Innovation Spender, Canada Lagging Behind
When it comes to R & D and innovation, the usual knee-jerk reaction of many in the West and Japan is that China only copies and doesn’t innovate. Well, it looks like those people will have to eat their words for, according to a new OECD study, China’s R & D spending is leapfrogging ahead of everybody and in a matter of 5 years will surpass even the US. Meanwhile, Canada is lagging farther behind as the BRICs and other countries march forward. Time for the Canadian government to put on its thinking cap and develop new incentive policies and fast!
A new report on science and technology policy from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paints a grim picture of Canada’s place in the world. Canada has tumbled out of the top 10 research and development (R&D) spenders since the Great Recession, steadily ceding ground to more aggressive nations on a host of innovation measures.
Canada now ranks 12th in overall spending, according to the report, released last week. It invested less in R&D in 2012 ($21.8-billion U.S.) than it did in 2004 ($22.7-billion). Four countries that Canada handily outspent a decade ago – Russia, India, Taiwan and Brazil – have all jumped ahead.
Taiwan, which spent half of what Canada did in 2002, now tops this country by nearly $3-billion a year.
Canada’s R&D “intensity” – spending as a percentage of gross domestic product – is equally worrying. The rate has been on a steady decline for more than a decade and now stands at 1.69 per cent of GDP, well below the OECD average of 2.4 per cent. In 2012, 20 other countries outspent Canada relative to the size of their economies.
The R&D intensity leader is South Korea, a country with which Canada is now bound in a free-trade agreement, creating new competitive pressures for Canadian businesses.
Most remarkable is the ascent of China, which the OECD says is now on a course to become the world’s biggest R&D spender by 2019, outpacing even the current No. 1 spender, the United States.
Canada is the only developed country with an intellectual property deficit – meaning we spend more to acquire other peoples’ technology than the world buys from us.
And most disappointingly, the private sector continues to underinvest, in spite of repeated warnings about the consequences. Business spending on R&D stands at 0.88 per cent of GDP, near the bottom among OECD countries.
Given all this, the federal government might be expected to be angst-ridden, and grasping for remedies.
But there’s no obvious sense of urgency. The last time Ottawa drafted a science and technology strategy was in 2007. At the time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to make Canada “a world leader in science and technology and a key source of entrepreneurial innovation and creativity.”
The government promised to deliver an updated innovation strategy more than a year ago, following months of consultations. Two ministers of state for science and technology later, and the government has yet to produce anything. The current minister, former insurance broker Ed Holder, is promising something “soon.”
But expectations are low that the Conservatives will do anything ambitious, or costly, given the government’s determination to eliminate the budget deficit next year, while simultaneously delivering targeted tax breaks.
Short of a radical rethink and significant amounts of cash, it’s not clear what will fix the problem. The government has already tinkered with many of the key levers at its disposal, to little effect. It has put more money into direct R&D grants for smaller companies, invested $400-million (Canadian) in various venture capital funds, refocused the mission of the National Research Council on commercialization, and tightened the rules of its flagship R&D tax credit – the $1.5-billion Scientific Research and Experimental Development program. Ottawa also pledged $1.5-billion over a decade to universities, by way of the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
But these efforts fall short of what many other countries are doing, condemning Canada to falling even farther behind in the global science and technology race.
– Globe and Mail
Hong Kong Student Protest Leaders’ Stunt
Who are they kidding? They knew all too well there was no way they could get on the plane, let alone arrive at Beijing Airport. It’s all a big stunt by the student protest leaders in search of a honourable way out of their predicament (retreat with their tails between their legs or press on and lose any residual support from the general public) and place the blame on Beijing. Really pitiful they had to resort to such tactics. Just as pitiful was the number of supporters they had at the airport. Basically, this sounds the death knell of the protests.
Their seven weeks of blocking main thoroughfares have thoroughly alienated ordinary Hong Kong citizens who have to work for a living. A campaign launched by a group of anti-Occupy Central activists obtained over 1.5 million signatures in a mere ten days. The moronic antics of the student protestors have also given cause for vigilance by the police to prevent any similar outrages in the future.
Three Hong Kong student leaders were stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing on Saturday to take their fight for greater democracy directly to the Chinese government after airline authorities said their travel permits were invalid.
The students, led by Hong Kong Federation of Students’ leader Alex Chow, had planned to go to Beijing with the intention of meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as efforts to reach agreement with officials in Hong Kong had failed.
A Cathay Pacific spokesman told local media that Chinese authorities had told the airline the students’ travel permits were invalid. He did not elaborate, though the representative of a student body did comment.
“Cathay has confirmed that their (students’) return home card has been canceled by the mainland authorities, so they could not get the required certificates to get on to the plane,” Yvonne Leung, the representative of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told reporters.
The student leaders left the airport shortly after.
Local media had speculated that the students would be turned back once they landed in Beijing.
About 300 supporters, some with yellow umbrellas that have become a symbol of the democracy movement, showed up at Hong Kong airport where they were greeted by a media pack amid chaotic scenes.
– Reuters
China – Canada Version of China – US SED Established
Belated news but nonetheless a promising development, mimicking the China – US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED). It is imperative that Canada – China hold regular talks on important diplomatic and economic/financial matters instead of letting relations be periodically hijacked by ‘human rights’, cyber-espionage, diplomatic and trade related issues and disputes.
On November 8, 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Li Keqiang announced the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Ministers Dialogue and the China-Canada Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue. The dialogues represent a significant step forward in the relationship between Canada and China with regard to foreign affairs and economic matters, which will deepen bilateral trade and investment ties between the two countries, which is a priority under the Global Markets Action Plan.
The proposed dialogues will be held on a rotating basis in each of the two countries. The purpose of these dialogues will be to enhance bilateral communication and cooperation in the fields of foreign affairs, macroeconomic policy, trade, investment, finance, energy, agriculture, global economic governance and others; strengthen coordination on strategic, long-term and overarching bilateral and global economic issues; advance healthy and stable development of Canada-China economic relations; and promote economic recovery and growth of the two countries and the world.
The first Canada-China Foreign Affairs Ministers Dialogue and the Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue will take place in 2015.
– Office of the Prime Minister backgrounder