China has had incredible economic growth in recent years. But is growth in industry and manufacturing a sign of creativity and innovation? According to Richard Florida, author of “Why China lags in Innovation and Creativity”, the answer is an emphatic “no.”
All you highly productive folks out there take note: there is a big difference between being creative and innovative and being productive. According to Florida, China is thriving as an industrial model, but not as a center for creativity. A really good read!
China’s rise as an economic power has been staggering. Its manufacturing prowess is well-established, having earned it the moniker, “the world’s factory.” Roughly half of its population now lives in urban areas, up from less than one in five three decades ago. Over 100 of its cities have populations of one million or more.
More than half of Americans already believe China is the world’s most powerful economy, according to Gallup polls, and a growing chorus of commentators believes that it will overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2030. Some are projecting this to happen as early as 2016.
How rapidly can China’s economy move up the development ladder and become genuinely innovative and technology-driven?
Xu Xiaoping, one of China’s leading investors, “doesn’t think China will be able to produce its own equivalent of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates in this generation” according to a recent article in The Washington Post. He expects that it will take at least 20 years before China’s economy becomes truly innovative and creative.
For Richard Florida’s full article, go here.