GE to invest SR3.75 bn in Kingdom – Arab News
“With this investment, GE will promote innovation and human capital development to strengthen the country’s manufacturing capability and supply chain in health care and energy. We are committed to work in partnership with key ministries and customers to support the Saudi Vision of boosting the country’s competitiveness and building a knowledge-based economy. Today, we live in a world where multi-way partnerships can better unlock potential, empower a strong local work force and stimulate the SME sector to build local technologies and solutions that address pressing challenges.” Steve Bolze, GE president and CEO of power plant and water – full article
Aiming toward a knowledge-based economy – Saudi Gazette
The King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) was the starting point of turning the Saudi economy away from oil dependency and toward a knowledge-based one. Launched in 2005, KASP is considered the largest scholarship program in the history of the Kingdom. Rest
Tiger mothers in Singapore – Losing her stripes?
The prime minister goes into battle against pushy parents
… It is too early to tell which way the debate that Mr Lee provoked will go. For many parents, to follow the prime minister’s indulgent instincts would be to jeopardize the little prodigy’s future. But the anxiety behind the comments is that hard-studying Singaporeans lack creativity and an ability to think laterally. This is now seen as a competitive disadvantage in what are often called “knowledge economies”, where innovation and inventiveness are at a premium. Are the tiger mothers, Mr Lee seems to be wondering, now putting Singapore’s future prosperity at risk? The full article
Gearing Up for Knowledge Economy
As countries progress toward higher income levels, their success or failure depends on their economies’ ability to move up the production ladder from low-value-added manufacturing based on imported technology to high-value-added products less reliant on technology imports.
Numerous middle-income countries that were initially high economic performers struggled to make this transition. As their wages and other production costs increased, they could no longer compete with low-income countries, and with limited technological capacity and innovation, they could not compete with high-income countries either. In economists’ jargon, they were caught in the “middle-income trap”.
China is not considered to be in the middle-income trap, but its economy shows many similar symptoms. Wages have risen sharply, exports and growth are under threat, and many parts of the economy will need to move quickly to increase their value-added products and stay competitive.
The experience of countries that avoided the middle-income trap is highly relevant to China. What have others learned? Two crucial elements: education and innovation. Rest
Competition enforcement in the knowledge economy
Joaquín Almunia Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy Competition enforcement in the knowledge economy Fordham University/ New York City 20 September 2012 … I will start with the financial services. Over the past 30 years or so, banks and other financial institutions have grown spectacularly in size and complexity and information technology has changed the industry beyond recognition. For regulators and antitrust enforcers this means that to keep financial markets open and fair we must refine our tools and update our expertise. It’s an uphill struggle. We all know that for too long the financial-services sector has not had the same constraints and standards that were imposed on other industries to protect us from the harm it could do – nowhere near the standards for environmental protection, for instance. We know that well, but today I will not talk about regulation and oversight – or the lack thereof. Instead, I will talk about how the EU competition authority is trying to keep a level playing field in the industry and prepare the ground for the sounder, safer and more transparent financial sector of the future. Rest
Biomedical Research Foundation
Economic development organizations must invest in knowledge the way they invested in manufacturing, a central Louisiana development professional said. Jim Clinton, president and CEO of the Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance, shared that thought during the Biomedical Research Foundation annual luncheon Tuesday in Shreveport. “Today we find ourselves in the middle of what we call the knowledge economy,” Clinton said. “The most valuable companies today … are valued for what they know, not what they own.” Rest