Читать книгу The Emerging Markets Handbook - Pran Tiku - Страница 114

Data: Bloomberg, World Bank

China ranks 42nd out of 70 countries in the 2010 Digital Economy ranking. Only Brazil outranks China among the BRICs. A recent Stanford University study made the following conclusion about China’s digital divide:

“We find the gap between computer and internet access of students in rural areas and urban public school students is extremely wide. Migration itself does not appear to eliminate the digital divide. Only when migrant families are able to enrol their children into urban schools does the divide substantially narrow.”

China has to seriously address this issue to avoid future unemployment and income inequality problems.

In 2011 China overtook the US in the number of patents filed. While many believe that the quality of the patents filed are suspect, it could in fact be seen as evidence that the government and companies in China have realised the need to move up the value chain to compete in a global economy.

According to the Chinese ministry of finance, the government plans to spend $19 billion on local transport infrastructure. A Bloomberg article in late 2012 reported that China planned to build 2018 km (1254 miles) of roads, and 25 new subway and inter-city rail projects worth more than $126 billion. Also in 2012, the government approved nine sewage-treatment plants, five port and warehouse projects, and two waterway upgrades.

China has struggled to expand its power grid to keep up with demand. According to the Energy Research Institute, capacity needs to grow from 1060 GW (Giga Watts) in 2011 to 1500 GW by 2050. China remained the world’s largest energy producer for a fifth straight year in 2012, with its hydropower and wind power sectors boasting the world’s highest capacities. It has also invested billions of dollars in solar energy. Its infrastructure is far more robust than India’s, for example, and there have been no major blackouts in the recent past to indicate a major shortage.