Innovations and R&D
The aim of the Dashboard is to delve deep into the spending on research and development and to share insights about important changes into the science and engineering landscape of the major Asian economies.
Asian Acquisitions of Western Companies
(in mln USD)
The second decade of the 21st century was marked by a high growth in the Indian economy. India’s real GDP growth was at its peak in March, 2010, when it reached 13.3%. The nominal GDP growth at that point was over 16.1%. The bad news was that in September 2019, this number was at 6.3%, its lowest in the decade. This decrease could be attributed to the sliding share of the industrial output. What is strange here is that this is only typical for post-industrial economies while India is yet to be fully industrialized. However, the Indian government has already set the ball rolling by announcing one of the largest and ambitious infrastructure projects earlier this year. It is also undertaking many projects planned earlier and reviving a few stalled ones. If the planning is successful, India may renew its ascendance.
In 2020 China, outstripped the U.S. in putting out research papers in the natural sciences as the country’s spending on R&D hit a record high at 2.23 percent of its GDP in 2019, up by 0.09 percentage points from the previous year (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)). This perfectly aligns with the long term Chinese plans to become a leading force in science and innovation as the first half of the century passes. This strategy was outlined in “Made in China 2025”.
With the rise of the local economies, the spending on scientific research on the Asian continent also increased with a huge percentage. This provides a major opportunity for multinational companies willing to outsource their R&D centers to such innovation powerhouses like India or China. The aim of the Dashboard is to delve deep into the spending on research and development and to share insights about important changes into the science and engineering landscape of the major Asian economies.
“According to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index, Singapore and South Korea are two of the most competitive economies in the world, owing considerably to their deployment of technology in the workplace and their upskilling programs. In 2017, Samsung overtook Intel as the world's largest semiconductor supplier and edged out IBM for the most patents filed. In 2021, South Korea will open the International Science Business Belt in Daejeon, a complex encompassing eighteen universities, science parks, research centers, and a heavy ion accelerator.”
The Future Is Asian: Global Order in the Twenty-first Century
by Parag Khanna p. 194
Research and Development (R&D) refers to innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products or improving existing services or products. Research and development constitutes the first stage in the production process of potential new services.
R&D expenses are essentially the amounts of money that a company spends to develop new products and services or improve already existing ones each year.
R&D spendings are important as they contribute to the sustainability of a business. The needs of customers change over time so the companies not investing in R&D are not likely even to keep their current positions. Many companies do not understand the importance of R&D until it is too late. R&D also allows companies to have cutting edge technologies and products to keep up with competitors.
The fact that China, Japan, India, and South Korea are represented among the top 10 countries spending on R&D demonstrates that the Asian region is one of the global leaders in R&D. If we compare companies instead of countries we can notice that Asian electronics and motor giants as Huawei, Samsung, Toyota, Honda are also among the top R&D spenders in the world.
Analyzing R&D spendings allows us to understand not only the current stage of economic development but also to get a grasp of how the industry is going to look in a couple of years.