Articles/World News
The world is an ever changing organism which will either sustain itself or will become an un-inhabitable planet in future times. This part of the Newsletter will therefore look at major issues that will influence the destiny of humankind.
Socio-economic issues:
China and the East Asian economies are developing at a phenomenal rate compared to the industrialised economies of the West. Although some SE Asian economies have been recently hit by the financial turbulence in the region, their rate of growth carries on relentlessly. From the point of view of Western economies, they are now even more competitive on the world markets with their products than they were before due to substantial devaluation in their currencies.
% change on year ago | last 12 months $bn |
Nation | GDP | Industrial Production | trade balance | foreign reserves |
latest | 12 months ago |
China | +8.2 Q4 | +9.2 Dec | +40.4 Dec | 141.3 | 104.3 |
Indonesia | +8.0 (1996) | +9.0 Q2 | +11.3 Nov | 18.9 | 15.7 |
India | +6.8 (1996) | +6.1 Nov | -5.9 Dec | 24.2 | 20.2 |
Malaysia | +7.4 Q3 | +11.4 Nov | +0.3 Nov | 21.7 | 27.0 |
Taiwan | +6.9 Q3 | +8.1 Dec | +0.2 Dec | 83.1 | 87.7 |
The Economist - February 14th to 20th 1998
The British Government's Future Innovation and Technological Strategy for the people of the United Kingdom
The INEED through the DTI has been asked informally to comment on the proposed forthcoming I&T Strategy to be adopted by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Government. The government's panel of 14 strong from the industry and science are chaired by the Industry and Science minister John Battle MP. As this is seen by the INEED as the most vital event in Britain's contemporary history due to the factthat if we get it wrong again this time, it will be a further 10 years down the road to nowhere before alternative policies can be put into place, and that will be crucial to the United Kingdom's economic and social fortunes for the 21st Century. When we view this against the immense threat to world trade posed by the Asian economies in the next century this is a truism of unprecedented magnitude. It is hoped, therefore, for Britain and other Western economies that the policies now put in place by this government will be far reaching and addressed to a changing philosophy of technological supremacy instead of what many informed people now think that all the previous governments have done of merely managing a declining world power that just lumbers along regardless of what is happening out there in the big wide world.
The INEED is so clear now of the possibilities and the threats that the totally integrated industrial global economy of the 21st Century will bring that we have to get it right this time. In a further 10 years time the Asian economies, including India will on past and present statistical information control over 57% of the world's economic consumption when viewed in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). By the year 2040 this may realistically even be 75% leaving Britain, the USA and the rest of Europe and the world with a mere 25%. Industrial Production (IP) will have by that time reverted to the Asian economies because of low-cost manufacturing which will leave a minority of immensely rich people in the West through vast investment over many decades but also will have made most of our people totally impoverished. This is happening now throughout the economies of the industrialised West as factories close in our homeland and are re-built throughout the Asian Economies taking jobs away from our people year after year. It is a fallacy that we can solely live on the Service Industries that are so totally reliant on manufacturing industries. In time, if not checked, Asia will control the manufacturing of 75% of the world's needs.
Therefore, the INEED would ask, are we as a nation's people just born for the satisfaction of the very few or are we born to make a better world for our children and mankind in general. These facts are a reality of not just Britain but further Europe and the USA. It is therefore time that the West sees this for what it really is and develops the righ mechanisms so that future generations of our people can live in a free world where jobs in their homeland are commonplace.