Recently, during the State of the Union address, the US President asked the US for a new Sputnik moment. Mr. Obama was referring back to the moment when the late USSR managed to beat the US in launching the first satellite – an event that triggered a fast technological development from the US side.

But can the US sustain a new technological leap forward? My answer is no! Reality check: with a huge debt crisis and with only one in four youngsters going to university, there will be neither financial capacity nor human capital to deliver on this aspiration.

The technological leap forward will most likely come from China: 1) the human capital is there – 400 000 engineers being turned out every year (against 250 000 from India or 35 000 from Brazil) against the existing 1,6 million engineers working in the US; 2) the financial capacity is on the rise – a huge trade surplus making money available for R&D.

History might repeat itself… but this time, it seems that the roles have reversed – the US is in a similar situation to what the USSR was, and China is in the driver’s seat. I look forward to this new technology race – in the end, we’ll all win no matter wheter the new products / solutions are “made in China” or “made in USA”.

Asia’s booming economy has created a special need for natives with Western experience
By Fred Cohn in Universum Quarterly 4/2010

The boom in Asia’s economy has created a corresponding growth in its job market. Companies are hiring not just in established business centres like Hong Kong and Singapore, but in the second- and third-tier cities that are now flourishing throughout the area. But whilst top professionals, even those without native language and cultural skills, have traditionally been able to flourish in the continent’s more cosmopolitan cities, employers in Asia now increasingly need – and demand – candidates who demonstrate cultural fluency. The situation has put a special premium on native Asians who have developed international cultural skills. Because of this, Asian expatriates – natives who are now studying or working abroad – are particularly desirable subgroup.

Read the rest of this entry »