 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
China Boosts R&D Spending For 2006
by Winter Casey
By the end of the year, China will become the world's second-largest investor in research and development after the United States, according to the latest projections from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
China will spend more than $136 billion on R&D in 2006, according to the OECD report released Monday. The United States is expected to spend more than $330 billion, while Japan's rate is forecast at $130 billion. The 15 countries that formed the European Union until the end of April 2004 -- including France, Germany and the United Kingdom -- are predicted to spend more than $230 billion.
The OECD also found that the percentage of China's increase in R&D spending is growing at a faster rate than the country's economy.
The number of researchers in China increased by 77 percent between 1995 and 2004, and the country now ranks second for researchers, the report said. In addition, the total number of globally important patents from developing countries is increasing.
The group also said that "few countries have worked out how to adapt national policy frameworks to today's more global innovation system, but small, open economies, such as Finland and Ireland, appear to be leading the way."
Privacy Official Warns Against Tracking Workers
Employers need to carefully weigh the privacy rights of their workers before installing technology that can track company vehicle locations in real time, Canada's top privacy official said last week at a workplace privacy seminar hosted by Ryerson University in Toronto.
A company should not routinely use global positioning systems to monitor its workforce, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a statement.
"This is an important issue for employers and employees across Canada," she said. "We're seeing more and more organizations installing GPS in their cars and trucks, and it's unclear whether they are adequately addressing privacy issues. While using GPS to track a vehicle is not overly privacy-invasive, routinely evaluating worker performance based on assumptions drawn from GPS information impinges on individual privacy."
European Official Outlines Telecom Policy Vision
The convergence of technologies will force a change in the business models of major telecommunications operators in the European Union, Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said Monday in a speech delivered to the International Telecommunication Union's conference in Hong Kong.
"Today, we can no longer see clearly where telecommunications end and content services begin," she said. "These changes call for a set of rules that takes account of these new patterns of competition."
The European Commission is currently "looking at the functioning of the legal framework under which competition is ensured in Europe's electronic communications markets," Reding said. Regulation still "plays a very important role in the investment ladder [in broadband growth], especially in member states with no or weak infrastructural competition."
In the short run, mandating access to technology reduces prices for consumers, but "so the story goes, over the longer term makes it harder for network operators to recoup their investment in new networks," Reding said.
Also at the conference, the ITU on Wednesday released the eighth edition of its Internet report. The study found that China, the United States and Russia lead the world in the number of mobile phone subscribers.
As of Dec. 31, 2005, so-called third-generation technology, or 3G, was not commercially available in China, India, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand or Turkey, the report said.
China's top telecom official said Monday that domestic telecom operator licenses to build advanced phone networks can be expected soon, according to state press reports. "I cannot provide a specific timetable, but it could happen very soon," Wang Xudong, the minister of information industry, said according to China Daily.
Wang reiterated a commitment that 3G services will be available during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The licenses could be granted in the first quarter of 2007.
Trade News Around The World
The United States and the Ukraine on Tuesday signed a science and technology agreement, the U.S. State Department said.
The accord provides a framework for cooperation that spans both the public and private realms. "Areas for potential future cooperation include innovation and commercialization of technology," the department said.
Nearby in Russia, the state news agency RIA Novosti reports that Russia's information technology market may grow by 15 percent to 20 percent in 2006, according to Oleg Byakhov, a department head at Russia's Information and Communications Ministry.
Also this week, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will be in India to discuss bilateral and regional issues, including trade and investment relations. And in Washington, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet with President Bush at the White House on Thursday. They are expected to discuss ways to encourage free trade, among other topics.
Outlook India.com, meanwhile, reports that Israel is considering a free trade agreement with India.
U.S. University Develops Web Tools For Poor
Business students from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., have developed Web-based tools to make small loans more accessible to small-business owners and the working poor in Honduras. The technology uses a synchronized data-collection system for mobile devices and a database management system.
The researchers worked with REDMICROH, a network of microfinance institutions headquartered in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. Honduran recipients of the small loans generally will be the working poor who live on less than $1 a day and are looking to start or expand their businesses.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
