Singapore
It is no surprise that Singapore placed first in global innovation and competitiveness in a recent survey undertaken by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. I do not know this group and cannot vouch for the methodologies used in their work. However, the United States ranked sixth overall in this widely reported study behind Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and South Korea.
Particularly disturbing for we Americans is a finding that places us 40th and last in terms of innovation over the past 10 years. One case in point is the claim that while Singapore and South Korea increased corporate R&D investment over the past three years, the United States actually shrunk private R&D expenditures by 5 percent. How breathtakingly abysmal historians will someday label the state of American public- and private-sector leadership in the 2000s. There may now well be nowhere to go now but up.
p.s. Kusu Island is a fairly remote place outside Singapore’s Harbor. It is certainly worth the trip, however, to enter the 90-degree waters here and gaze at the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan on the horizon.
Icons on and enroute to Kusu Island.
It is no surprise that Singapore placed first in global innovation and competitiveness in a recent survey undertaken by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. I do not know this group and cannot vouch for the methodologies used in their work. However, the United States ranked sixth overall in this widely reported study behind Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and South Korea.
Particularly disturbing for we Americans is a finding that places us 40th and last in terms of innovation over the past 10 years. One case in point is the claim that while Singapore and South Korea increased corporate R&D investment over the past three years, the United States actually shrunk private R&D expenditures by 5 percent. How breathtakingly abysmal historians will someday label the state of American public- and private-sector leadership in the 2000s. There may now well be nowhere to go now but up.
p.s. Kusu Island is a fairly remote place outside Singapore’s Harbor. It is certainly worth the trip, however, to enter the 90-degree waters here and gaze at the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan on the horizon.
Icons on and enroute to Kusu Island.