China’s Path to Innovation
Event summary – 17 July 2015
DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme
An event was held at the ODI (Overseas Development Institute) to celebrate the launch of the book
‘China’s Path to Innovation’ written by DEGRP grant holder Professor Xiaolan Fu, Founding Director of
the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Professor of Technology and
International Development and Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. The event
brought together key experts to discuss China’s past success, how it may sustain dynamic growth in the
future and what other countries can learn from China’s success.
The event was chaired by Dr Dirk Willem te Velde, DEGRP Research Leader, Senior Research Fellow and
Head of the International Economic Development Group at ODI who provided an overview on the
DEGRP programme and introduced the new area of research on China-Africa. This consists of five projects
which have been selected to examine the development impact of China in Africa and evaluate what lessons
China’s own economic transformation can offer other developing countries. It is a dedicated area of
DEGRP research, which, along with existing research in the agricultural, innovation and finance themes,
will be able to provide significant insights into the growth process in Low Income Countries. He
introduced the book which is based on a decade of work by Xiaolan and raised the issue of the concept of
an open innovation system and what lessons this has for other countries.
Xiaolan Fu, outlined the contents of her book and discussed the role of innovation as a driver for long term
growth but recognised that it has not received the attention it deserves. She discussed China’s
achievements in innovation in the areas of technology and exports but explained that there is still a gap
between China and world innovation leaders such as USA, Japan and South Korea and highlighted
problems in sustaining growth. She concluded by suggesting that developing countries can upgrade using
an open innovation system, using both indigenous and foreign efforts but the weight of these should
change over time at different levels of development. She stated that within the innovation process, the
state should play a role in the early stages when risks are higher and the market should play a role later
on. However China’s success in innovation and development doesn’t just depend on open innovation;
incentives and how institutions are developed also play a role.
Professor Raphie Kaplinsky, Professor of Development Policy and Practice, The Open University and
Honorary Professorial Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex acted as discussant in the event. He opened
with a complementary summary on the book praising the excellent mix of micro and macroeconomics and
qualitative and quantitative research. On discussing China’s growth, he concluded that China is moving
from an extensive path of growth fueled by high levels of investment to an intensive path of growth and
that the quality of investment is as important as the quantity of investment. Three areas of interest were
discussed around this; global value chains, environmental issues and developmental growth.
China’s Path to Innovation
Professor Deborah Brautigam, Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the
International Development Program (IDEV), and the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns
Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) also acted as discussant. She
praised Xiaolan Fu’s excellent focus on incentives, institutions and capabilities in the book. On China she
stated that growth and innovation happen in phases and governments should look to the early phases of
China’s path to innovation. She discussed technology transfer and the types of firms countries are able to
attract. She concluded that in Africa there are lots of donor driven and NGO activity but it doesn’t link
Africa to the technology frontier. Donors should look towards aid programmes in Taiwan and Korea
which pulled in raw materials and fostered domestic capabilities.
The meeting was followed by a Question and Answer session from the floor and from online participants.
A video of the event is available on the ODI event page.
Links
Event video and presentations
#chinaafrica on Twitter
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