中国从模仿者走向创新者
National innovation needed中国从模仿者走向创新者As the global recession takes its toll on the economy, one of the big questions facing China is whether the country can transform itself from a production powerhouse to an innovation power. This transformation is essential for China to sustain ongoing growth in productivity and realize its full economic potential.
The evidence on whether China can innovate is already beginning to be visible. From 2004 to 2007, China-origin patents granted by the U.S. patent office grew at a robust 27 percent annual rate. At that rate of growth, the number of China-originated patents granted by the patent office would exceed the number of patents from Germany, Britain, France, and Italy combined by 2020.
A recent report by Thomson Reuters on the development of technologies for green energy also provides relevant data. Between 2006 and 2008, China had the largest number of original patent filings pertaining to wind, solar, and marine energy followed by Japan, America and Germany.
Innovation never takes place in a vacuum -- it is driven by often acute external challenges. This is why companies from Japan, one of the world's most densely populated countries, emerged as the pioneers of just-in-time manufacturing processes whereby space is not wasted for storing inventory.
Social and economic challenges either unique to or particularly acute in China are likely to serve as demand-side drivers of innovation. Some of the key challenges and opportunities for innovation pertain to an acute shortage of natural resources, a high degree of environmental pollution, urbanization, high population densities and a society that will start to age rapidly within the next decade.
China also faces significant institutional difficulties on the road to becoming an innovation powerhouse. One of the major challenges is an educational system that favors learning by rote memorization rather than creative application.
中国从模仿者走向创新者
随着全球经济衰退给中国经济带来损失，中国面临的一个重要问题是，能否从制造工厂转变成创新大国。这种转变对于中国保持生产力的增长和发挥经济潜力至关重要。
中国已经开始显现自己的创新能力。2004年至2007年，美国专利商标局批准的来自中国的发明专利数量保持着27%的年增速。如能保持目前的发展势头，到2020年，美国批准的来自中国的专利数量将超过德国、英国、法国和意大利的总和。
最近发布的有关绿色能源技术开发的报告也提供了相关数据。2006年至2008年间，中国申请的有关风能、太阳能和海洋能源的新专利数量在全球居首位，其次是日本、美国和德国。
从历史上看，封闭的环境无法带来创新，创新来源于严峻的外部挑战。这也是为什么世界人口密度最高的国家之一日本的企业会开创准时生产方式，这种生产方式可以节约库存空间。
与之相似，目前中国面临的社会和经济方面的挑战如果不是独一无二，也称得上非常严峻，这也许就是其创新的源泉。其中一些主要挑战，同时也是创新的机遇包括极度匮乏的自然资源、严重的环境污染、过快的城市化发展、过高的人口密度，以及在未来十年内加速发展的人口老龄化。
中国在通向创新大国的路上仍面临重大的制度挑战。其中一个主要挑战是提倡死记硬背而非创新运用的教育体制。
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